Did Nevada make a difference in this year's Presidential nominating process?

Plus... -This is the most incredible city, I think, in America that you could do a Super Bowl in.

-Reaction to Las Vegas' very first Super Bowl.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

How well Las Vegas played host to its first ever Super Bowl?

That discussion is ahead, as is the perspective of one very special little boy.

You don't want to miss that story.

But first, a look back at Nevada's primaries and caucus.

President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary with more than 89% of the vote, while the "None of These Candidates" option beat former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary.

Not on the Republican primary ballot in Nevada was former President Donald Trump, and that's because the state GOP decided to hold a caucus and only award delegates based on its results.

Trump won the caucus with more than 99% of the vote and gained 26 delegates.

And here to explain what impact his victory has had is Jacob Solis, Politics Reporter for The Nevada Independent.

Jacob, welcome.

Nevada is a swing state.

It is the third state on the Republicans' Presidential nominating calendar, and early voting states can sometimes influence the trajectory of a candidate.

So did Nevada have any kind of influence?

(Jacob Solis) I'll say probably not.

And a lot of that goes down to, I think, what you've already outlined, which is the confusion between having a primary and having a caucus, in the first place.

That was a decision that the state Party, the state GOP, made pretty early last year after Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, jumped in, jumped into the race.

Donald Trump's campaign started courting the state GOP.

Many of the members of the top leadership of the state GOP have been very close with the Trump campaign for a long time, and that's how we sort of got this dual caucus-primary setup in the first place.

-And how did that benefit Trump?

-Well, really, there was no competition for Trump.

When the Party rules were made last summer, what they did crucially to sort of block out DeSantis was they prevented Super PACs from participating in the caucus process.

And DeSantis at the time was basically running his campaign through a Super PAC.

And so it's easy, sort of, to connect the dots there.

And certainly his Super PAC was-- they called it rigged at the time, and they sort of stopped campaigning in Nevada.

Every other campaign, folks like Mike Pence, the former Vice President; Tim Scott, the South Carolina Senator; and Nikki Haley, just sort of avoided Nevada.

They didn't spend any money here.

They didn't come and campaign here because they didn't see an opportunity to actually win delegates like they might in New Hampshire or Iowa, which were the first two states on the calendar for Republicans.

And so by the time we actually got to Nevada, I mean, basically everyone but Nikki Haley had dropped out.

There was no one left on the caucus ballot.

There were six candidates initially.

All but Trump and Texas Pastor and CEO Ryan Binkley had dropped out.

And so it was basically Trump's show.

And so it was we got what we got.

-Nevada's Republican voters, at least those that The Nevada Independent spoke with, those that showed up to the primary, how well aware were they that Donald Trump would not be on the ballot and that they were supposed to really be going to the caucus?

-It was a mixed bag.

There were folks who showed up who were Republicans who showed up on primary day to go vote for Trump and were surprised when they didn't see him on the ballot, because they-- everyone gets mail ballot, right?

If you're a registered Republican or Democrat, there's about 1.1 million voters who got a ballot in the mail.

A lot of Republicans got that ballot, didn't see Trump's name on a list of like seven candidates, and said, What gives?

So they go to the polling place and learn, Oh, there's a caucus in two days.

I guess I'll go to that too.

And so voters we talked to were (A) surprised and (B) confused and (C) upset.

And so they they ended up going to the caucus two days later.

-All right.

So that's from the state perspective.

What about from a national perspective?

What is Nevada's reputation now, or credibility, as a result of this dual primary-caucus system?

-I think it's an open question, right, because Nikki Haley is essentially the only credible candidate left against Trump in this sort of primary process.

South Carolina at this point is maybe still a little ways away, and Haley is doing badly in the polls there, sort of losing 2 to 1 to Trump so far in those early polls.

Nevada, had she attempted to do anything here, could have been a sort of like little mini Bulwark.

I don't think she would have won, to be clear.

"None of These Candidates" still won in Nevada on the primary ballot that Trump wasn't on, which is essentially a protest vote for Trump.

-So even if she had made an effort, you don't think she would have won?

-No, I don't think so.

But she could have at least done better than-- I think a lot of the headlines the day after were that her campaign was embarrassed, that it was, you know, she was crushed, and like all this stuff.

And the narrative setting becomes key, because now, you know, after she does badly in Nevada, Trump becomes even more of the de facto candidate for the rest of the race.

And so at that national level, I mean, there's essentially no competition.

So Nikki Haley intentionally avoided Nevada, but it certainly didn't help her.

-Up next for her and Donald Trump is the South Carolina primary on February 24.

It is her home state.

Do you consider this a must-win for her?

-Yeah, absolutely.

I think the theory of the case for Nikki Haley is that she can-- if she can beat Trump, she has to do well in South Carolina and then she has to do well on Super Tuesday.

Right now, neither of those outcomes look likely or possible.

Trump is polling, again, sort of 2 to 1 against her.

The Party is starting to consolidate around Trump, and I think a lot of Republicans-- and the way that, sort of, Democrats have said, We want Joe Biden as our nominee, a lot of Republicans have said, We want Donald Trump as our nominee.

The people who are most plugged in, who are most likely to come out in these low turnout primary elections are people who are activated and want to vote for Donald Trump.

-I'm glad you brought up the turnout.

Because back here in Nevada, how was the turnout in these primaries, primaries that haven't happened in this state for several decades?

-Yeah.

I think it depends on how you contextualize the numbers.

Right?

So on the one hand, Nevada has had a caucus.

Like you said, we haven't had primaries in a long time.

And those caucuses are generally lower turnout.

So these primary elections broke the caucus turnout records.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans had higher turnout this year than those record caucuses.

That said, only about 15% of all the mail ballots that got sent out to Democrats and Republicans, again about 1.1 million people, were returned.

So in that context, very low turnout.

So it's really just sort of a function of like, this was great turnout compared to past years, but terrible, sort of like in general terms.

-But the mail ballots did contribute to the turnout?

-Oh, absolutely.

Because again, it's sort of if you're a voter who is sort of high information, you're plugged in, you want to vote, mail ballots make it that much easier to say, Okay, well, I just want to vote for Joe Biden or I want to vote for Donald Trump or None of These Candidates to show that my guy has my support.

So I'm going to mail it in and I'm done.

I don't have to go on Election Day.

What we saw was voters did not come out on Election Day.

Weather was bad sort of statewide.

Snowing up north.

It was kind of miserable down south.

But even with that, I mean, everyone just kind of mailed in their ballots, even Republicans.

Most of the turnout for the Republican primary was by mail.

-Jacob Solis of The Nevada Independent, thank you for your time.

-Thanks so much.

-A reminder that Election Day is Tuesday, November 5.

As for the date of the next Super Bowl in Las Vegas, that's already being debated following mostly positive reaction to Las Vegas' very first Super Bowl in which the Kansas City Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.

I spoke with fans and players about their experience.

What have you thought of the first ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas so far?

(a fan) Awesome.

Awesome.

And we should do this again.

(a fan) It's amazing.

And everybody has been so nice, really, including yourself.

[laughter] (a fan) We went to Miami and then Arizona with the Chiefs and then now here in Vegas.

Vegas is pretty cool because it's all lit up, so it's kind of like a party the whole time.

Instead of trying to find the parties, they're all here.

And you can see all the concerts, and you can just pick what entertainment you want and what buffet you want each night.

(a fan) I am feeling the energy here, and we're just surrounded, surrounded by the fellow faithfuls.

(a fan) There's an incredible vibrancy about this city.

It is alive.

The minute I touched down, like you could tell you were hosting the big game.

Everyone was enthusiastic.

It doesn't matter who you're rooting for.

Go football!

There were fans, and it was just great energy all the way around.

(a fan) In my opinion, there's everything here.

So there's probably more people watching the game outside than inside.

You've got every facility imaginable, hotels, bars, restaurants.

I mean, this is the most incredible city, I think, in America that you could do a Super Bowl in.

-So, plenty of positivity from fans about Las Vegas as the Super Bowl host city, but we also got the perspective of a distinguished member of the media, longtime ESPN Broadcaster Sal Paolantonio.

Logistically, convenience-wise, how has it been for you as a broadcaster, and was it necessary to have the players out at Lake Las Vegas?

(Sal Paolantonio) Okay.

Well, the first thing is convenience-wise, it's been very good.

It's been super crowded on the Strip, but the taxi cab drivers have been friendly, accommodating.

Uber drivers have been great.

And I really can't say enough about the service industry.

The people here have been terrific to us.

And the answer to your question is yes.

Staying out there was terrific for those players and coaches, because Saturday night was really crowded and crazy here.

And I think it was important for them to be apart from that to get away from it.

And their families were out there, so it was good.

I mean, I've stayed at Super Bowl, some bad cities.

This has been an A+.

-As you heard Sal Paolantonio mention, the players from the Chiefs and 49ers all stayed out at Lake Las Vegas during the week.

Here's what they had to say about Las Vegas as a Super Bowl host city.

(Trey Smith) Unbelievable!

Las Vegas is phenomenal.

From the stores to the city to the ambiance, you know, they got us really far away at Lake Las Vegas, but you know, we still didn't mind the drive.

But anytime you go to Vegas-- I'm not a big gambler at all, so I lose out on probably about half the experience.

But it's a beautiful city, it's a great city, and it's a fun place.

(Justin Reid) Man, there's no place like Vegas, man.

Just an amazing city.

They welcomed us with open arms, man.

And you know it's Arrowhead West for us out here.

So we were very comfortable with this stadium, and we loved that the city welcomed us the way they did.

We can't wait to see what the rest of Vegas has to offer tonight.

(Isiah Pacheco) Las Vegas was fun, exciting.

We came here for one goal.

Now it's time to party.

[laughter] -We did speak with one journalist in that piece, but let's hear from another one now.

He is a local sports business reporter.

Alan Snel, also the Publisher of LVSportsBiz.com, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

(Alan Snel) Hey, it's great to be here, Amber.

-So first off, your overall thoughts of Las Vegas' very first Super Bowl?

How many have you covered?

-I covered them in Tampa and Miami and the last one in Phoenix before Las Vegas.

-How did Las Vegas compare?

-Well, I gotta say, this was an ideal match.

I mean, Las Vegas is a pro at over-the-top entertainment.

The National Football League puts on its premiere event, the Super Bowl, in a way that's over the top as well.

And it was really a perfect marriage, I thought.

-The only complaint I think I heard was traffic.

-Yeah.

That's Las Vegas.

I mean, Las Vegas has transportation issues.

And to that point, I thought it was a funny little anecdote on the Friday night before the game, Kevin Frazier from the Entertainment Tonight TV show was part of the CBS show about the Super Bowl commercials.

And they did a live, kind of a feed from Kevin right in front of the Bellagio.

And there's Kevin Frazier.

His first words out of his mouth, "It is gridlock city tonight."

And I thought it was funny that here's a guy, you know, adding some humor to the commercial show, giving like a live report about all the gridlock that was in front, up and down the Strip.

-There certainly was.

When might Las Vegas get to host its second Super Bowl?

-So that's a good question.

People here-- this was the first for Las Vegas, and people are so enthusiastic.

I think people are still kind of nursing, kind of like an emotional hangover from the high and the gleefulness of the weekend and the week leading up.

-I see it on your face.

-Yeah, absolutely.

I needed a couple of days, like Monday, Tuesday, just to recharge my batteries.

We worked literally eight straight days, Sunday to Sunday.

It was a busy week.

And you have other markets that are really good at hosting it.

Miami, New Orleans which will host it next year, you have Houston, and then you have some of the western venues in Phoenix, Los Angeles will actually be-- SoFi Stadium will be hosting it in two years, too, in 2027, I believe, and the 49ers' stadium.

So you have other places.

My guess is that the Super Bowl will come back to here in maybe seven to eight years.

But Las Vegas will definitely be part of the rotation for sure.

And we heard it right from the horse's mouth, you know, the Commissioner.

Roger Goodell said, Hey, we'll be back.

-Why seven to eight years?

I mean, we know that 2025, 2026, 2027 are already accounted for.

-Correct.

-But why not 2028?

-I think you have other really great hosts.

Tampa does a good job.

I think Miami will be in the picture.

And also this is kind of a wild card.

Keep in mind that there's two NFL cities, Nashville and Buffalo, that are building new stadiums with public money.

Traditionally and typically, the NFL will reward a market that coughs up the free government money to help build a NFL football stadium.

They're usually rewarded with a Super Bowl.

-Now, about Vegas' opportunity to host another Super Bowl, there's something I want to run by you from the news outlet Front Office Sports.

This expert reads, quote, For billion-dollar casinos, the Super Bowl attracts mostly the wrong kind of clientele.

They want to attract wealthy gambling "whales" from around the world looking to spend millions at the betting table--not Joe and Jane Chiefs fan from Kansas City and San Francisco.

-Right.

I saw that.

And to me, those words are almost kind of relatable to the Formula 1 event.

I mean, I think Formula 1 wanted to actually attract those kind of, quote/unquote, whales.

I will say that the average fan who came to Las Vegas probably spent more money.

Maybe they were not the whales, but I think they spent more money than the typical tourist who came here to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl in previous years.

Keep in mind, and this is why it's hard to figure out the economic impact numbers, there's already 300,000 people coming to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend when we're not even hosting the game.

-Right.

-So it's hard to figure out that incremental extra revenue, because people are being displaced.

But I will say that, you know, the average fan is spending more, if only for any other reason, because the hotel rates are so much higher too.

I mean-- and also, it's, keep in mind, Las Vegas, even though sometimes we want to think that Las Vegas is kind of an affordable place to kind of do business, it really is not.

It's kind of expensive to have events on the Strip.

-From the betting perspective, the state did set a new record for handle in terms of sports betting, $185 million wagered on the Super Bowl this year in the state.

About the economic impact, will we ever know a true number?

-It's very hard.

And the reason is because the criteria is different.

We don't even know how many people were actually here during the weekend.

We saw the initial number of 330,000.

Then we saw another number 450,000.

And then how many people are being displaced from previous years?

And how much per capita spending can you assign per head of all those numbers?

It's easy, I think, to poke holes in some of these big gargantuan economic numbers.

So LVSportsBiz, we've been really careful about reporting what numbers.

We've tried to be responsible in terms of looking at both ends of the spectrum.

You had a person who's pretty much the known guy here in the Las Vegas market, Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis, projecting $800 million impact.

And then you have all the academic economists who just tear their hair out when they see these big numbers.

And they, their pat line is that they like to move the decimal point over one number.

In essence, saying it's 10% of that number.

I like to think it's probably somewhere in the middle.

And we will have to wait to see, you know, what the numbers come in, in terms of the visitorship and also the per capita spending.

We'll see how much money were spent at the hotels.

And also, a couple of interesting stats to look out for, we'll look at the sales tax revenues in Clark County for this particular month, and you can compare that number to February of 2023.

And also the room tax revenues, which will be interesting.

I expect to see a room tax revenue spike, because the bills for the hotel rooms were more.

And that means there are probably more tax, hotel tax revenues collected for this month because of the Super Bowl weekend.

-Alan, we've run out of time.

I want to make sure our viewers go to your website and read an article you put out last week about the workers at Allegiant Stadium who are attempting to unionize.

I think the headline read something like, The People that Pour Your $13 Beer are Making $13 an Hour.

-Right.

I thought this was the most underreported, underrated story of the whole week.

-So we definitely got to check it out.

Thank you, Alan.

-Yep.

-And in the Super Bowl crowd of more than 61,000 fans, there were several who dedicate their lives to making the community a better place.

And they were recognized for it with tickets to the Super Bowl.

One of those people is a little superhero who was having the, quote, best day of his life.

Not only because his team made it to the big game, but because he also got a very special shout-out from one of his football heroes.

Nevada Week's Maria Silva has this heartwarming story.

(Maria Silva) I talked to one of the players, and I said, You know what?

There's this little warrior.

He's the MVP warrior.

Super Benji, check this out.

Ready?

(Deebo Samuel) That just shows how strong the guy is mentally and physically.

To be battling cancer at age 10 and just being a warrior and just being able to do all these things is just amazing.

I definitely want to be sure to meet him.

So if y'all hear this, I need to meet this kid on the sideline before the game start.

Get him a sideline pass so I can meet with him.

Super Benji, you're a strong man.

We're gonna give you a good show on Sunday.

-To say 10-year-old Benji Sanchez, aka Super Benji, was surprised by 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel's special shout-out is, well, an understatement.

(Benji Sanchez) [screams] [laughter] -This special shout-out, just one of many surprises the Sanchez family received leading up to Super Bowl LVIII.

The biggest one?

Tickets to the big game courtesy of the NFL and the Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee after being nominated by the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.

-We're going to Super Bowl!

-And not even a broken hip and bilateral surgery kept Super Benji from attending this ceremony.

Soon after that surprise, another pleasant surprise.

The Sanchez family's favorite team... -Go 9ers!

-...were heading to the Super Bowl.

-Once I knew that we we're gonna get Super Bowl tickets, I was like, No way!

I mean, No way!

My childhood dream came true!

-If anyone deserves to have all of his childhood dreams come true, it's Super Benji.

To see this energetic 10 year old full of life, running around being, well, a 10 year old... -Let's go 9ers!

-...one would never imagine what this brave little superhero... -I just get my power from my brain.

-...has been through.

-I'm a two-time cancer survivor.

-His first cancer diagnosis, a brain tumor which metastasized throughout his spine.

Benji was only nine months old.

(Azalea Sanchez) His tumor had caused hemorrhaging, was taking up over 33% of his brain.

So when they sat me down, the doctor just looked at me and she's just like, "I'm sorry, Mom."

And I mean, we-- I just-- It's just like your jaw hits the floor and you sit down and she's showing me the tumor inside his scan, actually piece by piece.

And she's just doing that, and it gets to the point to where she had two hands.

And I just remember her hands were shaking.

I just-- literally, tears flew down and that was it.

We met with a neurosurgeon the next day.

He underwent a six-hour surgery.

I didn't find out till later that he had to be resuscitated.

-After intense treatments, including aggressive chemotherapy and three stem cell transplants, the family thought Benji was in the clear.

Call it a mother's intuition.

Azalea felt something wasn't quite right.

And at age five, another heartbreaking diagnosis.

-He grew a tumor on his thyroid that spread to some lymph nodes.

Luckily, the thyroid was nowhere near as aggressive as the brain cancer.

And it was a different way of treating it.

So he had the surgery.

He had his thyroid removed, which a lot of people don't realize that that is just a small, tiny organ, but it controls so much.

He's in remission with that.

We monitor it every three months, every three and six months.

He's grown some nodules.

In his case, if anything grows back, we need to be extra careful.

He also has a genetic mutation that puts him more at risk of developing multiple cancers.

-You're a cancer survivor.

How do you do it?

-Um, I just fight though it.

-This brave little fighter is no doubt the MVP of his team, Team Super Benji.

(Hunter Sanchez) He is such a charismatic person, and he's just always excited.

And I think that's one of the things that is so great about Benji is that even in bad times, like he can still push through and he'll still make everyone laugh.

(Persea Sanchez) I would describe him as probably the most wild person you would ever meet, the biggest character and the most loving little boy you could ever meet.

I'd say he's a two-time cancer survivor because that's, that's a big, a big part of who he is.

And that's a big part of who we all are as a family.

And I would say he's just a real life superhero.

-They have been so supportive.

They are just-- they've had to grow up a lot faster than they should have, and I'm just so proud of them.

-On Super Bowl Sunday, Super Benji, Mom Azalia, Dad Frank, and Big Brothers JJ and Hunter, as well as Big Sister Persea got all dressed to the nines in their favorite 9ers gear.

-Deebo, thank you so much for the message.

I can't wait to see you at Super Bowl.

-And while Super Benji did not get to meet up with Deebo on that sideline before the big game, just being able to attend the Super Bowl... -That game was the best day of my life.

-And on the best day of his life, Super Benji made sure to repay the favor with a special message of his own for Deebo and his beloved 49ers.

-We'll get them next time.

We'll see you guys at next year's Super Bowl.

And you're always my hero, and you guys played so good on the field.

Bye!

-And here's another reason Super Benji is an inspiration.

A day after the Super Bowl, Benji, along with his mom, boarded a plane and headed to Washington, D.C. to take part in Alliance for Childhood Cancer Action Days 2024.

Benji met with Nevada lawmakers to advocate for important childhood cancer issues affecting kids here in our state and nationwide.

A big thank you to Benji and his family for sharing their story with us, and thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed on this show and to see more episodes of Nevada Week, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And we also want to acknowledge the shooting that took place Wednesday during the Chiefs' victory parade.

Our thoughts are with everyone affected.