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In Nevada, cooks, waiters and casino workers make up the front lines in the 2024 election. It's the Democrats' not-so-secret weapon in this battleground state. An army of service workers from the Culinary Workers Union have been helping deliver the party victories over the last several election cycles. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez has this story.
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FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: It's the second day that Nancy Chavez Florez and Mauricio Baena, a kitchen worker and food runner, have been knocking on doors through Las Vegas.
MAURICIO BAENA: Hi, Robert. My name is Mauricio. I'm from the Culinary Union. This is Nancy, my coworker. We're canvassing for Kamala Harris. How do you feel about her?
ORDOÑEZ: Baena is feeling good about a run of strong support from different voters for Vice President Kamala Harris after getting dismissed from a couple of homes of Trump supporters earlier in the day.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, I've been watching all of it. I plan to vote for her.
BAENA: All right, so you're a strong supporter.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
BAENA: Can we count with your vote?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yes, you would.
BAENA: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thanks, again.
BAENA: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thank you.
BAENA: Have a wonderful night.
Can we count with your vote for Kamala Harris?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: More than likely, yes.
BAENA: Oh, thank you very much. Let me leave you with this information.
ORDOÑEZ: But he also got some pushback when he met Francisco Araujo. Araujo's long voted for the Democratic Party, but he was not yet ready to commit to Harris.
FRANCISCO ARAUJO: (Through interpreter) OK, look, I'm just going to give you a point of view that I have observed.
ORDOÑEZ: He's thinking about retirement, and he's worried about Social Security and food prices and rent.
ARAUJO: (Through interpreter) I don't mean to be rude. What I'm trying to say is we're worried. We are worried on this aspect - economically.
ORDOÑEZ: Baena and Chavez Florez are two of the union members who have taken a leave of absence for this new job - mobilizing voters for Harris through the election. The union covers their salary while they're away from work. John Tuman, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, says Harris and the Democrats have a structural advantage when it comes to mobilizing voters. In a state like this, it's all about turnout.
JOHN TUMAN: I can't emphasize enough Trump has been late to try to put infrastructure and a ground game in place in Nevada.
ORDOÑEZ: Helder Toste is a Republican strategist and former director of Hispanic outreach for the Trump campaign in 2020. He says it's no secret that the Harris campaign has a financial advantage. And the Trump campaign has had to make trade-offs about where they're going to spend their money.
HELDER TOSTE: That does not mean the ground game doesn't exist. It just means that instead of it being a physical office, it is Hispanic volunteers going into Hispanic neighborhoods. It's about optimizing.
ORDOÑEZ: The type of grassroots campaigning that the Culinary Union and Mauricio Baena have already undertaken.
BAENA: Six days a week - we really want her to win.
ORDOÑEZ: Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, Las Vegas.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADANNA DURU SONG, "POP!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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