Podcast: Nevada's 'None of the Above' Vote

Plus a look at Eric Adams's week of damage control

The latest episode of my “Chasing the Vote” podcast is now out, based on trips I took earlier this year to Reno and Carson City. Click these links to listen on Apple podcasts or on Spotify, or in the feed for The Wall Street Journal’s “What’s News” program.

I went to Nevada to get a sense of how this election is being influenced by voters who at times wish they could check, "None of the above." Sometimes you hear people like this called double haters, but talking to a bunch of them, I detected more of an exasperation or exhaustion than anything like hate.

They're at a higher concentration in this Western state than other places, and they'll play a key role in a race that President Biden won here in 2020 by around 34,000 votes out of about 1,400,000 cast. There are more Nevadans not in a political Party than enrolled as either Republicans or Democrats, according to voter registration statistics. 

Some of these folks were attracted to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of Democratic President John F. Kennedy, who ran this year as an independent. Kennedy dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump in late August.

I interviewed several supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who at one point was polling as high as 15% in Nevada, who said they are coming around to voting for Trump in November.

Janice Berard, 69, modified her Kennedy sign to add Trump’s name after RFK dropped out. She said backing Trump is a “strategic vote” that she hopes will lead to some of the policies Kennedy has pushed. She urges her friends to think in the same way, even if they have negative thoughts about the former president.

“I know you don't want to do it, but sometimes you've just got to go in and vote then come out and vomit and get it out of your system and then move on,” Berard told me.

You can see her here in this photo essay that I made with Cam Pollack, using images taken by Breanna Maxine and Bridget Bennett.

While Kennedy has been a boost to Trump, Harris’s rise to the top of the ticket has energized younger Democrats who said they didn’t think Biden had a chance to beat the Republican former president. Many said they were concerned about Biden’s record in office and age even before his June debate against Trump.

“I was thrilled when he stepped aside and I would've actually supported if someone else had stepped up even without him stepping aside. I would've done whatever I could have to support that,” Andrea Laue, a 48-year-old artist, told me. “The energy is just so much different. Honestly, it's a relief. I was terrified when Trump was polling as high as he was, and the immediate shift was very motivating actually, I think, to be active because it felt like, ‘Oh, there's a chance.’”

TRIP NOTES:

++ One Reno native told me that “our casinos are like the dive bars of casinos,” and that’s very true. I thought it was delightful.

++ We went twice to Louis’ Basque Corner restaurant and it was delightful. Their signature drink, a Picon Punch, tastes like burning at first but then … gets better. People are seated family style, and we had some great conversations with strangers during our meals.

++ The Nevada State Capitol is small and kind of cute. I learned that at one point, Mark Twain was basically second-in-command of the state!

ERIC ADAMS HAS SURVIVED THUS FAR:

With a flurry of behind the scenes moves and a staff shakeup, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has kept the Gov. Kathy Hochul on his side and weathered the first week under indictment bruised, but unbowed, I wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

Adams’s efforts to appease the governor are part of a larger campaign to stay in power despite a poll released Friday showing 69% of New York City residents, including 71% of Democrats, think he should resign.

The mayor has rallied with Black civil-rights and religious leaders to try to show the public—and Hochul—he has a base of support despite the indictment. A reservoir of goodwill with the city’s business community, including some executives who are wary of a more progressive mayor, has buttressed his position.

As a result of Adams’s moves, calls for his resignation have slowed and remain limited to left-leaning groups and officials. Major unions and top Democrats—including the speaker of the City Council and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents Brooklyn—are so far giving Adams space.

“He’s shown that he has a following,” said former New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat. “I think that it’s not quite as open and shut as it appeared in the first couple of days—legally or politically.”

THE QUESTION: Which presidential candidate in 1992 won 26% of the vote in Nevada?

Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.

THE LAST ANSWER: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is next in the line of success should Mayor Eric Adams leave office.