One of the more amazing red states Obama managed to re-color is Nevada. How did he manage to accomplish this almost-impossible feat? A little irrelevant minutia might help us understand.
Between the metropolitan areas of Reno in Northwestern Nevada and Las Vegas in the Southeast, the state seems devoid of living creatures.
It’s possible to drive for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles without encountering a single man-made structure or a living organism on the evolutionary scale above the reptilian order.
How do I know this? I’ve driven the very stretch that I just described. From Winnemucca to the Idaho border through a small corner of Southeastern Oregon, I did not see any of the aforementioned creatures.
Years later, I learned that this area of northern Nevada is prime ranch and farm territory rich in cows, horses, wild mustangs, alfalfa fields, ranchers, and cowboys. In case you’re interested in more redundant minutia, a rancher is someone who owns a ranch; a cowboy is a working ranch hand. And by the way, cowboys aren’t cowboys in Nevada. They are buckaroos.
I also learned that the ranches and assorted inhabitants were located out of sight, reachable for the most part on single-lane gravel or dirt roads suitable only for transit by a 4-WD vehicle or a horse. Some ranch communities are located 70 miles or more away from a paved road, which accounts for their isolation and invisibility from the main highway between Winnemucca and Idaho.
So, when I learned that Obama had carried the state, I wondered when, where, and how the buckaroos voted. Absentee ballot? Traveling poll worker? What? I figured this was important because buckaroos tend to be rock solid Republicans. My quest for answers was further complicated by Nevada’s electoral history. The state has voted Republican since the desert was formed.
What magic wand did Obama wave that transformed tough buckaroos into sissy-men?
Well, I found the answer in a New York Times article that included statistical tables and maps of red-blue voting patterns for every state in the U.S., broken down to the county level.
The discovery flabbergasted me. Every single county in the state went for McCain except three. But those three were more populous than the other counties combined. The three counties were Washoe and Carson City in the Northwest, and Clark in the Southeast.
In terms of the value of the rural counties to a presidential candidate seeking Nevada’s five electoral votes, the vast interior of Nevada doesn’t count except perhaps in some symbolic fashion. Obama probably had symbolism in mind when he visited Elko since Elko County went for McCain rather handily.
You can check the startling distribution of red-blue votes by clicking the link here. The map that appears will be of the U.S. Click Nevada. The Statewide Winner Map will pop up showing which counties went for McCain and which went for Obama. You can find the County Bubbles Map by clicking the link in the upper-left corner of the Statewide Winner Map. The Bubble Map depicts areas of red-blue strength within a county.
A look at these maps ought to make it crystal clear that presidential electoral votes are won on the basis of population. Acres only count if you’re looking for a ranch to buy.
At any rate, to answer my introductory question about how Obama magically transformed tough buckaroos to sissy-men, he didn’t. Cowboy Country went overwhelmingly for McCain. No magic wand needed for an Obama victory in Nevada. Just a moderately sharp strategerous mind.
