Candidates make last pitches to Latino voters in important Nevada races

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Latino voters have long propelled Democrats to statewide victories in Nevada, but concerns over inflation and cost of living have made Democratic incumbents as vulnerable as ever in the state.

  Lisa Desjardins is back now. She recently traveled to Las Vegas to talk with Latino voters about the contest that may well determine the balance of power in Congress.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  In this room, a resolve to steer the political winds of Nevada and of the country.

• Speaker:

  Catherine Cortez Masto, running for United States Senate, if she loses, we lose control of the Senate. If she wins, Democrats keep control of the United States Senate.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  The Culinary Workers Union has 60,000 members. These are the people who keep Las Vegas running, cleaning, cooking and welcoming tourists every day.

  In their time off, including today, they organize into a turnout machine for Democrats, with an ambitious goal, to knock on a record one million doors before Election Day. They see this as worker-to-worker conversations from a union that is mostly Latino to a state that is now majority-minority, including Asian American and Black communities.

• Speaker:

  I am here from the Culinary Union, just a friendly reminder of November 8 elections.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Latinos are the largest group of color here, nearly a third of the state. Democrats have dominated with these voters in the past. But that's now in question.

  Pio Rejas is a 19-year-old Peruvian American and the passionate president of the Latino student alliance at the College of Southern Nevada, a community college. He's voting Democratic for incumbent Senator Cortez Masto, who's locked in a tight race. Her support of abortion access is key to Pio and that she's invested in the Latino community.

  But as for other Latinos:

• Pio Rejas, College Student:

  Well, I think, right now, the Latino community, it's just — I feel like they're not, like, only Democrats. I feel, like, they're like trying to find a person

• Lisa Desjardins:

  They're not locked into voting Democratic.

• Pio Rejas:

  No, no. But I will say there's, like, a big percentage of people who are Democrats in Latino community.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  But even with that, Latinos are — now are looking and might vote either way?

• Pio Rejas:

  Yes.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Looming over all this is the economy. Tourism has been back, but Nevada remains the state longest and hardest hit by the pandemic.

  Lower wage workers, disproportionately Hispanic, face a rent crisis. And inflation here is tied for the highest in the nation, with gas prices a daily reminder, this in a vast state brimming over with close high-stakes races from governor down. It is a nail-biter for U.S. Senate. And three of the four U.S. House seats here could swing either way.

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV):

  I am so excited to be with all of you.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Cortez Masto is seen as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat in the country, a must-win for her party to hold the Senate. She first won in 2016, thanks largely to Latinos. And she's campaigning hard with them again, in person and with an ad stressing her Mexican American heritage.

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto:

  All of us sharing dinners at my grandmother's.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  We asked her about what Pio raised, economic worries.

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto:

  I take on big oil because they're squeezing my families at the gas — I see it. My family lives here as well.

  But my opponent is not. He actually makes money at a D.C. law firm that represents big oil. He's opposed to prescription drug negotiation.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  That charge was directed at the Republican challenger, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

  Adam Laxalt (R), Nevada Senatorial Candidate: Hi, Nevada!

• Lisa Desjardins:

  The son and grandson of U.S. senators, he is riding a Trump wave.

• Adam Laxalt:

  So we have one shot to save this great state.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Laxalt charges that Cortez Masto and Democrats are the ones out of touch.

• Adam Laxalt:

  And people are as upset as they have ever been with what's happening to America. They can't believe that Joe Biden and Catherine Cortez Masto have done this much damage to our great country and to our great state in just two short years.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  To win, he and Republicans have launched something new this year. This is Operation Vamos, a grassroots effort from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and coalitions director Helder Toste.

  Today, they found Brazilian American Vinny Magalhaes, a conservative who sees education and the economy as key.

• Vinny Magalhaes, Nevada Voter:

  Gas prices and all those things, like, cost of, like, groceries and all those things as well. So….

• Lisa Desjardins:

  What's that like for you?

• Vinny Magalhaes:

  Compared to, like, a couple years ago, it's like — it's bad.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This effort will get to 145,000 doors, Republicans estimate, a far cry from the one million-plus for groups on the left.

  But Republicans see a new Nevada.

• Helder Toste, National Republican Senatorial Committee:

  It's a new Florida. It's a state that, as it's becoming more diverse, more Hispanic, more Asian, more African American, we're also seeing Republican margins grow.

  David Damore, University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Republicans are never going to win the Latino vote. It's about cutting the markets.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  David Damore chairs political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The state is a mix of neon Vegas cityscape, suburbs and desert. But, everywhere, there is an independent streak and low voter turnout, with Hispanics especially.

• David Damore:

  It's still a really low participation state. So there's an opportunity for both parties to grow the electorate here.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Seizing that opportunity with both feet is another vulnerable Democrat, Congresswoman Susie Lee, in Nevada's 3rd District, including some of Las Vegas.

  She's also getting creative with a dance lesson campaign event at a Hispanic-owned small business. Her closing message is personal and tangible, that she pushed for the funds to keep businesses like this afloat in the pandemic, and has focused on health care and checkbook issues.

• Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV):

  Very clear distinction between what we fought for and what we delivered, not just for Latinos, for the entire community, and what Republicans have done, which is nothing.

  April Becker (R), Nevada Congressional Candidate: Well, we see where her plan has gotten us. We have got some of the highest gas costs in the country.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  April Becker is the Republican challenger, a high-energy attorney who also knows this diverse district, here at an Ethiopian community event. She believes many Hispanics have core conservative values.

• April Becker:

  They are turning away and coming to the Republican Party, and, hopefully, we don't let them down.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Both parties are fiercely fighting for this group. How and how many Hispanics vote here could set the course for the House, Senate and country.

  North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron is a Democrat.

• Isaac Barron, North Las Vegas City Councilmember:

  And whoever can come out and make that connection with Latinos is going to take this.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And if Latinos don't show up?

• Isaac Barron:

  It's going to be hard for Democrats to carry the day.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Back at college, Pio isn't sure who will win this year. But he has a sense of what's ahead for Latinos.

• Pio Rejas:

  I feel like it's our time to, like, have, like, a progress, you know?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  It's your time?

• Pio Rejas:

  It's our time, yes.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins in Las Vegas, Nevada.