HRC Launches Massive "Get Out the Vote" for LGBTQ Nevadans
Democratic presidential hopefuls are not the only ones hitting the pavement in Nevada this week. LGBTQ advocates are dialing phones, holding events, and talking to thousands of voters in the swing state.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has dispatched five staffers across the Silver State in an effort to increase LGBTQ voter turnout in Saturday’s caucuses. The effort comes after a staggering November 2019 report from The Williams Institute at UCLA found that one in every five LGBTQ voters was unregistered.
The New York Times reported last November that Democratic frontrunners trailed President Donald Trump in key swing states. But a NewNowNext analysis found that a surge in queer registered voters could help push a Democratic challenger over the finish line in several of those states.
HRC’s efforts in Nevada are non-partisan. Briana Escamilla, HRC’s Nevada state director, says the organization has made more than 21,000 calls in the state to increase voter turnout.
“I think organizing the LGBTQ community is very unique because we have so much diversity within the community,” Escamilla tells NewNowNext. “We're a very intersectional community, which means that all of these priorities matter to us.”
Nevada is a same-day registration state for the first time this year, providing endless opportunities for queer advocates to increase turnout through November.
On Wednesday, HRC held a debate watch party in Las Vegas with Alphonso David, the organization’s president. David has noted that LGBTQ voters have already been voting at higher rates than their straight counterparts in other states.
Nevada is home to about 127,000 LGBTQ voters, according to HRC.
“One thing that we found is that there's still a lot of people that just don't know what a caucus is and don't really know how it works,” Escamilla adds. "So by hosting these trainings and providing this information, and really talking to our folks consistently for the past few months about this, it has been our hope that we have been able to give them all the information they need to feel empowered to participate and hopefully demystify this process for them.”
