By Josh Meny, 2 News Nevada, January 28, 2025
For the first time since the Harry Reid Machine was prominent in 2007, Republicans now outnumber Democrats in Nevada.
Although nonpartisan voters exceed the numbers of both parties, Democrats have been steadily losing more voters to the nonpartisan category, while Republicans continue to make consistent gains.
On Monday, Republican strategist Jeremy Hughes, who has been monitoring the Secretary of State’s data, reported that Republicans have gained an advantage in statewide voter registration in Nevada.
We reached out to elections expert Doug Goodman to understand why Nevada’s large nonpartisan voting bloc is trending toward the Republican Party.
“The Republicans have been making a much more concentrated effort to reach out to nonpartisans, to reach out to younger people on the issues that matter. And we talked about this before; younger voters are issue-driven, and I think the Republican party has done a better job at that. The numbers reflect that. The actual vote reflects that,” said Founder & Executive Director Nevadans for Election Reform Doug Goodman.
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald asserts that the current trend in voter registration indicates that more nonpartisan voters supported President Trump than Kamala Harris in Nevada.
McDonald mentioned that his party will concentrate on converting nonpartisan Trump supporters into registered Republicans in preparation for the 2026 midterm elections.
Joe Weaver, the Campaign Spokesman for Governor Joe Lombardo, stated that this development has been expected for some time.
“Even just going back four years to 2020, Democrats had over 87,000 lead on Republicans in voter registration. In 2022, that lead was still about 52,000 when Joe Lombardo was victorious,” said Governor Lombardo Spokesman Joe Weaver.
Weaver emphasized the NVGOP’s strategy, noting that Republicans are outperforming Democrats on various issues at both the national and state levels.
“Democrats have really lost votes in our state because they have been wrong on every key issue. From taxes to crime on the border they have been at odds with what people really want to see from their leaders; President Trump exposed that in November by looking at those key cost of living issues and solutions like no tax on tips and at the same time Governor Lombardo is leading with common sense agenda as well to make life for all Nevada families,” said Weaver.
We contacted the Nevada Democrats for a comment, and they provided the following statement from Hillary Barrett, Executive Director of the Nevada State Democratic Party:
“Nevada is a battleground state where nonpartisan voters decide elections, which is why we invest in year-round organizing focused on both turning out Democrats and earning support from nonpartisans and moderate Republicans. Nevada Democrats have been laser-focused on talking directly to the growing number of registered nonpartisans and making sure we are mobilizing the broad and diverse coalitions we need to win.”
We contacted the Secretary of State’s office, which reports that the Republican advantage has decreased to 99 voters as of Tuesday: Republicans have 618,385 registered voters, while Democrats have 618,286 registered voters.