Washoe County won Nevada

Sparks Library, Nov. 8, 2022 - Reno Gazette Journal

Back when I was training non-profit organizations how to engage with electoral politics, one of the first admonitions I would offer was: "Remember, everyone is lying." 

I was not trying to reinforce the common suspicion among the folks I worked with that there was something polluting about the fight at the ballot box. Most of them were more comfortable denouncing the evil system and taking to the streets. That felt so much more pure than engaging with electoral politics. (There's not so much of this nowadays; we're all a lot less certain of our own virtue -- or maybe more desperate.) 

Rather, I wanted them to understand that the incentives in electoral work lead politicians, elections professionals, and campaigns to make exaggerated claims for their successes. Electoral victories are complex; multiple factors contribute to outcomes. Often it is hard to discern what mattered. Everyone involved wants to claim a piece. And, frequently, everyone can legitimately claim a piece of a victory. There's always the imperative to persuade essential donors that their money went to good use and they should pony up next time. And after working so hard, everyone wants to believe their particular piece of the effort was vital.

Truth is often a casualty of these pressures. 

So it is with delight that I pass on this from Erudite Partner in her role as data nerd. She makes a simple, convincing case that UniteHERE/Culinary Union work in Washoe County was the element of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's run that put her back in office. 

Figures from the Nevada Secretary of State’s website show that it was Washoe County that brought the election home for Catherine Cortez Masto. Her 52,000-vote margin of victory in Clark County (home of Las Vegas) was entirely matched by Laxalt’s margin in the state’s 16 underpopulated rural counties. Cortez Masto won because of her 8,000-vote edge in Washoe. And that edge was created by the canvassers of UNITE-HERE.

We did that. And we can legitimately claim this victory would not have happened without us. It's an extraordinary feeling.