A political scientist once predicted that Nevada would be “dependably Democratic”. He has since completely changed his mind.
What about the details?
Ruy Teixeira, a Democratic political scientist, famously predicted that Nevada would be “dependably Democratic” in a 2002 book.
Teixeira has changed his course completely, 20 years after he made that prediction. This is the exact reason he made that pro-Democratic prediction.
Teixeira predicted that Nevada’s growing Hispanic population would make it a blue state. Teixeira wisely observed that many Hispanic voters have switched to the Republican Party after years of Democrats believing Hispanic voters would support them.
It is easy to understand the phenomenon Teixeira is highlighting by polling for Nevada’s U.S. Senate Seat.
In 2016, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto became first Hispanic woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Six years later, she trails Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.
Nevada has been especially hard hit by the economic crisis, which is playing into Laxalt’s campaign messaging. FiveThirtyEight claims that Nevada is the “Republicans most likely to pick up opportunity” in the U.S. Senate election of 2022.
Teixeira has actually been sounding the alarm since months.
My data shows that the Democrats lost 18 points among Hispanic voters in 2020. This is huge. These shifts will continue as we move into 2022,” he stated on CNN in July.
He said that Democrats cannot assume that Hispanics will vote for Democrats regardless of their political affiliation. “That is no longer true.”