In today's edition of Indy Elections, a Hiko rancher who lives in Summerlin, candidates flip-flopping on running and an exclusive endorsement.

During the 11 months in which her 2020 presidential campaign was active — Harris ultimately dropped out before the Nevada caucus — she visited the state 10 times and hosted 27 events with a wide variety of demographic and interest groups, making her one of the most frequent visitors on the Silver State trail. 

As a lawsuit over a Red Rock housing project makes its way through federal court, the case filings read as a who's who of Las Vegas politics. They shed light on the transactional nature of the Clark County Commission and how one of the state's most powerful local governments decides land-use questions.

Groups affiliated with Gov. Steve Sisolak and other prominent Nevada Democrats were the financial backers of organizations that spent millions to drag down Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and other more moderate Republicans ahead of the state's June primary.

Tuesday marked the first major campaign finance deadline of the 2022 election cycle, with candidates required to submit their contribution and expense reports for the past calendar year.

Nevada, of course, mattered to both campaigns this election cycle. It's why the Trump campaign focused on building out its Nevada operation long before there was even a Democratic presidential nominee. It's why Joe Biden's campaign doubled down on its voter outreach this summer when it felt like the contest was narrowing.

While Senate Democrats have been eyeing state Sen. Heidi Gansert's Washoe County seat in their quest to secure a supermajority in that chamber, they have largely been playing defense on the Assembly side.

In the time of coronavirus, a significant chunk of Democratic playbook has been torn out and tossed out the window, with campaigns, the party and outside organizations nixing door-knocking from their get-out-the-vote plans in favor of phone banking, text message campaigns and literature drops. Democrats' absence from the field has been filled by Republicans, who halted in-person campaigning at the beginning of the pandemic but resumed door-knocking and in-person events in June.

Of the 42 seats in the state Assembly, almost a quarter will be decided in the primary election. Four races will actually be decided in the primary — including three incumbent Republicans fending off challengers — because no other candidates filed to run in those districts. Another five races will effectively be decided in the primary, given vast disparity in voter registration totals making it all but impossible for the opposing party to gain a foothold.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders emerged from Saturday's caucus not only with 47.1 percent support but a 26 percentage point lead over his next closest competitor, former Vice President Joe Biden. Political observers in Nevada anticipated a Sanders win, but they didn't anticipate exactly how much he would win by.

Several campaigns, especially those that have been knocking on doors in Nevada for months, believe that rural caucusgoers could drive up a candidate's delegate count in a close contest. Overall, there are fewer potential delegates in rural counties. But Nevada law, by ensuring that rural voters are included, apportions delegates differently and gives more weight to rural voters.

The formula for winning Las Vegas — and the other quarter of the state's residents in northern and rural Nevada — is straightforward: Get here early, build connections with the community, maybe persuade a politically powerful union to endorse them and send out foot soldiers on their behalf and, above all else, hold those house parties, knock those doors and make those phone calls.

According to a copy of Sisolak's official calendar, the new governor held a slew of meetings and calls throughout January and the first week of February with education and business leaders, union heads, one Trump administration official and with California billionaire and Democratic megadonor Tom Steyer.