A little history on Nevada's role in presidential campaigns

Nevada’s early caucus has given voters a true relevance in the presidential nomination process, perhaps for the first time in state history.  Past caucuses have gone largely unnoticed, and presidential primaries held in 1976 and 1980 were not hotly contested.  In 1976, Ronald Reagan defeated Gerald Ford here by a 66%-29% margin, but lost primaries in Oregon and Kentucky that had attracted considerably more attention.  On the Democratic side, Jerry Brown won Nevada 53%-23% over Jimmy Carter.  In 1980, Carter defeated Ted Kennedy by a 38%-29% margin.

While Republicans have not had fierce battles for delegate votes – the last was in 1952, when the Nevada GOP split between Robert Taft (7 votes) and Dwight Eisenhower (5 votes) -- the Democrats have. In 1972, Nevada’s Democratic delegation was split between George McGovern (5 ¾ votes) and Henry Jackson (5 ¼ votes).  In 1960, the Democrats gave Lyndon Johnson 6 ½ votes, John F. Kennedy 5 ½ votes, Adlai Stevenson 2 ½ votes, and Stuart Syminton ½ vote.  In 1956, Averill Harriman had 7 votes and Stevenson had 5 ½.