David Damore, a professor of political science at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is a Brookings Mountain West Fellow, a senior analyst at Latino Decisions, and president-elect of the Southwestern Political Science Association. Below is our interview with him on the battleground state of Nevada. Nevada went Republican in all six elections from 1968 to 1988. Since then, it has gone with the winner (usually the Democratic nominee) every time. Historically, what happened? If you go back even farther, except for 1976 when it went for Gerald Ford, Nevada has supported the winner in every presidential election since 1912 and even when it was voting consistently Republican in presidential elections, there were more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state. It was not until the 1990s that the two parties reached parity in registration. Yet in 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton carried Nevada. Since 2004, the Democrats have had the registration advantage, but the state continues to deliver split partisan outcomes in statewide elections. For instance, in 2010 Democrat Harry Reid won reelection while Republican Brian Sandoval defeated Reid's son
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