What Went Down In The 2020 Nevada Caucuses

A lot of the campaigning in Nevada has taken place not in person, but on TV. According to data from Kantar/Campaign Media Analysis Group, between Jan. 1 and Feb. 20, the current Democratic presidential candidates aired 24,230 TV spots in a Nevada-based media market at an estimated cost of $7.5 million.

The most prolific advertiser has been Steyer, who aired 11,068 spots for an estimated $3.2 million — and that’s on top of the 20,618 spots he aired for an estimated $8.2 million in 2019. One of Steyer’s most-aired ads features footage of Steyer from a debate where he laces into Trump’s immigration policies, calling him a “racist president” who is “break[ing] the laws of humanity.”

Sanders aired the second-most spots — 4,832 — at an estimated cost of $1.1 million. His most ubiquitous ad in Nevada is entitled “For All” and goes through the greatest hits of Sanders’s policies, including ending “tax breaks for billionaires” and achieving universal health care. (There’s also an unsubtle shot of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.)

Warren has spent even more on TV ads than Sanders ($1.2 million), but her ads haven’t aired nearly as many times (2,617). Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar round out the list of candidates with a notable TV presence in the Silver State, but they haven’t invested nearly as heavily as the other three.

The preliminary entrance polls also suggest that the electorate in Nevada may be better educated than in the 2016 Democratic caucuses. The preliminary data found that 52 percent of respondents said they had graduated from college while 48 percent said they didn’t have a college degree. Four years ago, 46 percent said they had graduated from college while 54 percent said they did not have a college degree.