Inside the blue tsunami that led to Nevada Democrats' best election ever

On Election Day, Jenny Blount, 69, walked out of the Downtown Reno library sporting an "I voted" sticker and saying she'd voted for Democrats. 

Why did she vote blue?

"Donald Trump — Donald J. Trump — enough is enough. What you doing? You need to stop. Back off," Blount, who is not a native English speaker, told The Nevada Independent. "Unfortunately, I did vote for him for president, but I shouldn't have … he just doesn't care for human beings."

Blount's vote came hours before Nevada and the rest of the country would elect Democrats up and down the ticket in what can only be described as a historic blue tsunami. Nevada political insiders credited it to a combination of Trump's sinking approval ratings, stubbornly high gas prices, a war in Iran and an economy that hasn't felt like it's working for the average person.

Nevada elected the second Democrat to hold the governor's office this century in Attorney General Aaron Ford (D), who is also set to become the state's first Black governor and the first Black governor elected in a state west of the Mississippi River.

But it wasn't just historic for Ford. 

In Nevada, Democrats didn't stop winning:

• They will control all statewide constitutional offices for the first time since 1962.
• They won Congressional District 2 for the first time since the district was created four decades ago.
• They will have more than 30 seats in the state Assembly for the first time since 1977.
• They won control of the Washoe County Commission for what appears to be the first time.
• They had a 21-percentage-point margin of victory in Congressional District 3, easily the highest ever. Before this year, their biggest victory was 5 points.
• They saw their largest margin of victory in a gubernatorial race since 1994.
• They had their largest margin of victory in a secretary of state's race since 1978.
• They had their biggest win in a lieutenant governor's race since 1982.

It's a blue wave not seen since the post-Watergate midterm in 1974. Democrats and Republicans alike have described it as an unprecedented, anti-incumbent, anti-Trump backlash. 

Interviews with political analysts and a review of Nevada's voting data found tepid enthusiasm among Republicans, particularly younger and male ones, was a key factor in the results. Latinos also took a sharp left turn after shifting right in 2024, and nonpartisans — who make up the largest share of Nevada voters — overwhelmingly broke Democratic.

"It was just a total wipeout," said longtime Democratic political strategist Billy Vassiliadis, who added that the wave didn't happen "just because Democrats became popular. It became [that] because people were pissed at the parties in power."

Experts have long thought the state was trending red — capped off by Trump winning Nevada in 2024, the first time for a Republican since 2004. Though Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) tried to win a second term by walking a fine line between appeasing Trump, pitching himself as a moderate and heavily outspending his opponent, it didn't matter.

"If you're a Republican team member … to go 0 for 10, I mean, we're not greedy by any means, but you got a governor who did a good job," outgoing Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) said. "Basically, wrong place, wrong time."

A longtime Republican strategist, who spoke anonymously to freely give his perspective, said that the old line that all politics is local is no longer true.

"All politics is national," the strategist said. "It didn't matter if we were running against Aaron Ford or Aaron Burr. The die was cast."

Another longtime Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity to share thoughts candidly, put it bluntly: 

"This was a referendum on Donald Trump, and it was insurmountable for Republicans."

An 'angry' vote

At the end of the day, elections come down to enthusiasm — and turnout numbers show there wasn't much on the Republican side.

It's the first midterm election since at least 2014 where Nevada Republicans turned out at a lower rate than Democrats. Democrats' turnout rate was similar to the 2018 midterms — the last election halfway through a Trump presidency — while GOP participation in this go-around was much lower than during that midterm and four years ago.

"What we saw more acutely was Republican apathy in turnout," said Erik Jimenez, the Washoe County Democratic Party chair, who closely tracked voting data.

This was evident when looking at voter history. Voters who had participated less often in the prior four general elections were much more likely to be Democrats than Republicans, a Nevada Independent analysis found.  

"I absolutely looked at that as a measurement of enthusiasm," said Greg Bailor, a Republican political consultant who also closely tracked turnout and early vote trends on his website.

Assm. Rebecca Edgeworth (R-Las Vegas), who lost her bid for re-election in a blue-leaning seat this year, told The Indy that around Labor Day, her internal polls began showing more serious problems among Republican voters. 

"There were Republicans that were apathetic. And there were Democrats that were willing to walk across hot coals to get to the polls," she said.

Bailor added that frustration with the economy likely contributed to depressed Republican turnout, particularly among younger voters.

"They felt that if they cast a ballot, it didn't matter," he said. 

One of the Republican strategists said Republicans either stayed on the couch or voted in anger or disgust, while Democrats were highly motivated and energized.

"Nevadans demonstrated without any question that they're done with the corruption of Trump world, that the tariff policy never made any sense, particularly for our friends in Canada," the strategist said. "The string of broken economic promises, a war that never seemed to be justified and clearly has no end, and the result of just continuing to be taken for granted. And so that all with sprinkling a little Epstein on top and that then turned into a wipeout we haven't seen since 1974."

Exit polls from CBS News showed 75 percent of voters across the country were frustrated with the economy, especially tariffs, and rising cost-of-living and affordability concerns have doubled the effect. Nevada's tourism-dependent economy exacerbated the issues.

Jeff Hardcastle, a 72-year-old Democrat, said at Washoe County Democrats' election night watch party that "there's a lot of denial on the Republican side as to how bad the economy screwed up for everyday people."

"I think the thing that's been underestimated, really, is just how … angry or frustrated or discouraged people are," he said.

Vassiliadis agreed.

"Each community had their own reasons to be angry. I mean, this is an angry vote," he said. "Two years ago was an angry vote, too, just the other way. … We seem to be going cycle after cycle more about anger than anything else."

UNLV political science professor Rebecca Gill said voters were broadly looking for change on a different dimension — not necessarily left versus right, but more about government competence and responsiveness. 

Trump, she said, became an "avatar" for everything that wasn't working.

"Politicians always forget that they rent their voters, they do not own them," she said. "You need to keep your voters in mind, what they are expecting from you, and not stray too far from that."

After rightward swing, Latinos upset about "broken promises" 

Ford is now set to lead one of the most diverse states in the country, where Latinos make up nearly a third of the population and Asian and Black residents comprise about a tenth. 

In Nevada, these minority voter blocs fueled unprecedented Democratic wins — a major shift from 2024 when they helped propel Trump's victory. Jimenez, the chair of the Washoe County Democrats who closely tracked voting data, found that about three times as many Latino voters were registered as Democrats than Republicans this cycle.

In 2024, the number of Latino Democrats was about double the number of Latino Republicans, Jimenez found. 

The Latino vote — which comprises about 20 percent of Nevada's electorate — has become especially important for candidates in swingy Nevada, where even the smallest of margins can make or break a victory. The group tends to skew younger and is less likely to vote than other demographics, adding another volatile element.

But this time around, Latinos overperformed. They comprised about 24 percent of Election Day voters in 2026, up from 17 percent in 2024, his analysis found. Additionally, more than a quarter of Election Day voters who had not voted before were Latino, Jimenez found. 

Several analysts told The Indy that like other demographic groups, Latinos — especially those who voted for Trump — were frustrated by rising gas prices and what they feel are "broken" economic promises. 

"For the last two election cycles, the demographic that has moved either direction has had a number of economic forces working against them," Jimenez said. 

Francisco Heredia, a Democratic political consultant based in Arizona, said immigration enforcement played a role, too. While many support increasing border security, Heredia said that enforcement methods went too far, lacking "humanity and respect."

Nowhere was their discontent more evident than in how Latino men voted, who made one of the largest rightward pivots in 2024 but have swung back to the left. 

"Latino men gravitated to this economic argument that [Trump] made in his persona, but the broken promises that he's made —  the Iran war — has them turning back to Democrats," Heredia said.

Jose Rodriguez Romero, an 18-year-old living in West Las Vegas, said that his strategy was to vote blue down the ballot even if he didn't know who a candidate was. Rodriguez Romero said that the threat of deportation has loomed large over his family and friends since Trump was elected and he decided "their voices needed to be heard."

"They influenced me to vote, 'cause I don't want you to be afraid anymore," he said. "I don't want you to have to look over your back." 

The kids are all left

Enthusiasm this cycle was notably high among young voters, who powered Democrats' victories on Tuesday after swinging hard toward the GOP in 2024. A Harvard poll from October found that half of young Democrats said they were definitely going to vote, compared to a third of young Republicans — the biggest enthusiasm gap between the younger wings of both parties in recent midterm elections. 

While in line to vote at North Las Vegas' Craig Ranch Regional Park, Anthony Giron, 31, told The Indy he was voting straight-ticket Democrat. He doesn't follow politics closely, but his friends, many of whom work for nonprofit organizations, told him how to vote: "They gave me a cheat sheet," he said. 

He said he hadn't heard of Ford but had seen ads criticizing Lombardo as too cozy with Trump. 

An analysis by The Indy found that in Nevada, young voters leaned Democratic. The youngest age at which more Republicans voted than Democrats was 55. It's a far cry from the 2024 election, when young voters were much more likely to be Republican. That year, the youngest age with more Republican than Democratic voters was 40, The Indy found.

Political experts attribute these shifts to young people's economic woes and diminished sense of obligation to any one party.

"Who's going to go fight those wars? Well, young people are. … The existential threat of AI, they're the ones who that's going to affect the most," said David Damore, executive director of The Lincy Institute. "So young voters had a lot on the line."

Young voters are also more likely to be nonpartisan, Damore said. The leftward shift among nonpartisans this year was likely less about love for Democrats and more about frustration with the Republicans.

"[Nonpartisans] broke for the red team two years ago, enough to go with the wave there, and then this time they abruptly turned around and said, 'We're going in another direction," he said.

Is Nevada now blue?

Vassiliadis, a longtime Democratic political strategist, said Democrats have a mandate to listen, serve and try to help as many Nevadans as they can.

He said the state is blue for now, but voters want practical solutions to the problems they face every day.

"We can stay blue if we address those problems," he said. "If we go in with 'no way, no how am I working with so and so … or this better be what happens if it's my way or the highway,' yeah, we'll be purple again really soon."

Gill said Nevada is definitively a purple state, with a lot of fluctuation attributable to the state's migratory population.

Voters who cast a ballot for Trump in 2024 and Democrats this year, she said, based their decisions on what mattered to them and who they felt would best deliver for them.

"The positionality of the parties is shifting around," Gill said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that Nevada voters are changing their mind all the time."

Damore said Democrats need to be cautious about treating their Tuesday victories as a mandate to implement their wish list.

The nature of the Legislature, he said, is that things get amended and changed.

"You've got to take your quarter of a loaf and call it a win. I don't know how much that's going to change," he said. "You've got to be realistic about the constraints of what the state government can do."

The longtime Republican strategist, who said the election outcome was a referendum on Trump, noted that it will take the right person to bring the GOP back to prominence in Nevada, given that Republicans didn't turn out in Clark County and rural areas still have traditional Trump-like margins.

"[Nevada's] undeniably blue at this moment," the strategist said. "But if the Democrats decide to carry on the fight in the same way that Trump did, and it's just different generals, then you can be right back here in two years, going the other direction."

Reporters Mini Racker and Piper Heath contributed reporting to this article.