A draft law that would alter the caucus of Nevada to a presidential primary and cause the state to be the US’s first presidential nominating contest is unveiled.
The bill from Nevada’s Assemblyman and Democrat Jason Frierson, demands the state to have the presidential primary from January’s second to final Tuesday. There would be 10 early voting days in it to wrap up the preceding Friday of the election.
Nevada would run the primary, and it would be different from a June election conducted to choose party nominees as well as narrow the candidate field for local, state and federal offices.
This draft law comes soon after the chaotic Iowa presidential caucuses, where several Democratic party members backed an end of caucuses due to result reporting delays.
Jason Frierson said that while Nevada made good progress to cause caucuses to be more accessible, a caucus’s nature limits the capability of making it much more inclusive. He also said that it is time for the state of Nevada to change to a presidential primary and switch to the frontline in making a presidential nomination.
Legislators who push for the move to set up Nevada in the first position in that nominating procedure, cite the diversity of the state over New Hampshire and Iowa.
It has been an objective of the former Senate Majority Leader and Attorney General Harry Reid. As for Reid, Nevada has to become the first US state to cost votes due to its diverse population.
In February last year, Reid told the NY Times that it has to be the nation’s first to do it instead of being one of the early US states. As for him, the logic for that is that the broad diversity of Nevada reflects the other parts of the nation.
Tradition may prevent the change since New Hampshire and Iowa still try fiercely to protect their positions in this regard.
Under New Hampshire’s legislation, the state has to have the presidential nominating contest before any comparable contest, plus the state secretary is authorized to change the date. Therefore, changing its date is easier for New Hampshire.
We still do not know what stance the political parties in the US will take with regards to the proposed legal change. Jason Frierson anticipates discussions between Nevada’s leaders, leaders of the two parties, and other states.
Nevada’s leadership would have discussions with other states’ leaders and their national partners with an interest in the matter, said Frierson. As for Frierson, Nevada is a better factor that reflects where the nation is going. To be precise, he termed Nevada a much better ‘barometer’ in that regard.
He underlined the importance of working on the legislative measure in the ongoing session of Legislature to allow Nevada to have enough time to prepare for the next presidential election. For your information, the United States of America will have that election in 2024. States run the US’s presidential primaries, so these would cost money, even if nothing up to the above-mentioned year. Frierson is not sure of the cost of that, but he said that he would work to find it.
Frierson feels that with a population and constituency that are diverse, Nevada has shown that discovering what its inhabitants are thinking is worthwhile for presidential candidates.
Earlier this year, Joe Biden addressed supporters in his campaign rally held at Nevada’s Hyde Park Middle School the night ahead of the state Democratic Caucus. Back then, the supporters from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers held placards supporting Biden as the next US President.
