A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We've been reporting this week from Clark County, home to Las Vegas. Now, that county and Reno's Washoe County are reliably Democratic, and it's also where nearly 90% of Nevadans live. The Silver State's other 15 counties are heavily conservative. We wanted to visit one, so we drove an hour and a half west to Pahrump, the largest town in Nye County, to check out a rodeo and a fair.
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MARTÍNEZ: It was there at the Pahrump Fall Festival, among food stalls selling funnel cake and tacos, that we met 18-year-old Abby Baker hanging out with her friends, eating corn on the cob.
ABBY BAKER: Pahrump's such a small town. I don't think people really pay attention to us very much. We get the leftovers of Vegas.
MARTÍNEZ: She was still in her costume from the parade that morning.
BAKER: We are wearing medieval royalty dresses. We had the royalty in the back of our float and then the peasants and the soccer teams at the bottom.
MARTÍNEZ: The high school senior says she'll vote for the first time in November, and she's leaning toward Kamala Harris, but she's not totally sold.
BAKER: Woman's rights and all that - I'm super with that. Then again, I've heard she's wrecking the economy as well. So both candidates really have their downsides, and I don't know.
MARTÍNEZ: Dustin Bristol, on the other hand, knows exactly who he wants to vote for.
DUSTIN BRISTOL: Trump was a good president, but he has his hands tied if he doesn't get Congress behind him. Kamala Harris - sorry, no. I'm good.
MARTÍNEZ: Bristol was sitting in the shade near a carnival game where you win live goldfish. He's from Pahrump and agrees with Baker that Nye County gets overlooked.
BRISTOL: I know we're sorely lacking infrastructure here. Our roads are crap. Our hospital's a joke.
MARTÍNEZ: At the festival, there were booths handing out stacks of Trump-Vance yard signs. Then, among all the Trump T-shirts, stickers and red MAGA caps, we spotted a woman wearing a camouflage Harris-Walz hat. I asked Mary Beth Powell, why do that here?
MARY BETH POWELL: I've lived here. I've lived in Washoe. I've lived in Clark. And, you know, I grew up here, and I just wanted people to know who I was voting for. And I kind of hope that it empowers some other people to maybe vote that way, too.
MARTÍNEZ: We spoke to Powell as the sun was setting and folks were taking their seats for the rodeo.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the 60th installment of the Pahrump Fall Festival rodeo.
MARTÍNEZ: We stood for the national anthem as a small crane lifted a giant flag over the arena. Then the riding and roping began.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Anybody here tonight from California? Welcome to America. Here we go. Let's ride one. It's (inaudible).
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Whoa, man.
MARTÍNEZ: On the way to the parking lot, we met Ryan Stackhouse, a local cowboy tending to some horses. He was holding a can of light beer and joking around with his friends.
RYAN STACKHOUSE: Can I have my Silver Bullet?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah, absolutely.
STACKHOUSE: Right on.
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MARTÍNEZ: Stackhouse said he thinks Trump will win the election.
STACKHOUSE: Well, you know, I think it's going to go red. I mean, it makes sense. Like, look at the s***hole we're in right now. Why would you want anything else? Keep it where it's at and just let the country get sh**tier? As soon as you know, fuel is going to be six bucks a gallon. Nobody wants that.
MARTÍNEZ: Stackhouse told us the most important issue for him is the cost of fuel, which really adds up in a rural county, especially when he's pulling a trailer full of horses to rodeos. He used derogatory language when he spoke about Vice President Harris and LGBTQ people, but he also says he hopes that someday this country will unite.
STACKHOUSE: I'd love to see us all come together like we did after 9/11. Everybody was, like, brothers in arms. Now we're separated red and blue.
MARTÍNEZ: Words of a rodeo cowboy that I'm sure many Americans may agree with. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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