Presenting your Nevada Field Guide

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GOP rivals shift focus to Nevada, Trump seeks third victory

John Roberts reports from Las Vegas

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PRESENTING YOUR NEVADA FIELD GUIDE
The history of the Nevada Republican caucus is brief. The Silver State only joined the ranks of the early nominating contests in 2008. And because it is a caucus rather than a primary, voters have been slow to embrace their Nevada’s new special status.

Due to the low turnout and the vagaries of the caucus system, you can go ahead and throw out pre-election polls. While Iowans know a thing or two about caucusing, Nevadans are just getting up to speed.

Democrats have more experience with the caucus system in Nevada, but even they proved the point about polling on Saturday when what was supposed to be a dead heat between Hillary Clinton and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders turned out to be an easy win for the Democratic frontrunner.

Further confounding efforts to figure out what tonight’s results will be is the fact that in the two prior GOP caucuses, the Republican field included the perfect Nevada candidate: Mitt Romney. Mormon, moderate, and pro-business, Romney was a triple play with the state’s Republicans.

Who stands to inherent the quarter of the electorate that is expected to be Mormon? Romney claimed 88 percent of their votes last time. Where will the state’s substantial libertarian-leaning population end up? Rep. Ron Paul notched an impressive 19 percent of the vote here in 2012. Will evangelical Christians, a minority in the state GOP, turn out to vote, and if so, for whom?

With so many mysteries,  it’s time to go to the map.

Nevada Caucus:
--30 total delegates, proportionally allocated to candidates with more than 3.33 percent of the popular vote
    --10 at-large delegates plus 3 automatic
    --12 congressional district delegates, 3 from each of the 4     districts
    --5 bonus delegates
--Closed caucus
    --32,965 caucus participants in 2012
    --Mitt Romney, 50 percent; Newt Gingrich, 21 percent; Ron     Paul, 19 percent; Rick Santorum, 10 percent
--Caucus will take place between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET

[Watch Fox: Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier bring you the latest as the results come in from Nevada at 11 p.m. ET]

VEGAS, BABY
More than two-thirds of Nevada’s population lives here in Clark County, and it accounted for a little more than half of the total Republican caucus turnout in 2012. Las Vegas and its sprawling desert suburbs aren’t all the marbles for this contest, but no one can win in the silver state without a strong showing here.

Once a booming place with endless real estate opportunities and a diversifying economy, the past ten years have been harder on Clark County than most places in the country. Foreclosures, setbacks for the gambling industry and a series of failed economic development projects left the county in a lurch.

Along the way, the county saw its politics shift from a Democratic tilt to a deep-blue hue.

Donald Trump ought to do well here, especially in Las Vegas, where he owns a hotel and finds an electorate more like the one who gave him his New Hampshire landslide: more secular, less conservative. The suburbs, though, are the biggest trove of votes and the least predictable given the nature of the three-man race on the GOP side.

In the bitter 2010 Senate primary in which rebel candidate Sharron Angle toppled the party favorite before going on to lose to the embattled Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, Angle won Clark County but only by about half of her margin statewide.

For Sen. Marco Rubio, holding Trump’s volume down with a strong showing in the suburbs will be key. This was Romney’s stronghold in 2012 and Rubio has to, ahem, bet on big turnout among more-affluent, better-educated suburbanites to pull off an upset.

Clark County
--Population: 2,069,681
--Median household income: $52,873
--Race: Caucasian, 45 percent; Hispanic or Latino, 30 percent
--Adults with bachelor’s degrees: 22 percent
--2012 election: Obama 56 percent
--Residents age 65 or older: 13 percent
--The first topless showgirls appeared on  Las Vegas in 1957

2012 Republican Caucus result: Mitt Romney, 57 percent; percent; Ron Paul, 19 percent; Newt Gingrich, 16; Rick Santorum, 7 percent

BIGGEST LITTLE SWING COUNTY IN THE WORLD
The northwestern corner of Nevada was once the GOP stronghold that delivered the state to the red team in eight of 10 presidential elections prior to 2008.

But an influx of Californians to the low-taxes and natural beauty of the region around Lake Tahoe and Reno has changed the character of the region and, by extension, the state. However, there are still lots of GOP caucus goers to be had here.

In 2012, 37 percent of GOP caucus turnout came from Washoe County, home to Reno, and the cluster of four small counties to its south that includes the state capital of Carson City.

Trump will have a built-in advantage given the large number of elderly voters here, but Washoe could also be hospitable territory for Ted Cruz. This was the part of the state that was most receptive to Newt Gingrich, Cruz’s 2012 doppelganger.

Rubio will have to find ways to cut into Cruz’s and Trump’s margins here, ideally finding a way to take a quarter of the vote or more.

Washoe County
--Population: 440,078
--Median household income: $53,040
--Race: Caucasian, 64 percent; Hispanic or Latino, 24 percent
--Adults with bachelor’s degrees: 27 percent
--2012 election: Obama 51 percent
--Residents age 65 or older: 15 percent
--In Reno, located within Washoe County, it is illegal to use profanity in front of a dead body.

2012 Republican Caucus result: Mitt Romney, 42 percent; Newt Gingrich, 28 percent; Ron Paul, 17 percent; Rick Santorum, 12 percent

Carson City County
--Population: 54,522
--Median household income: $51,957
--Race: Caucasian, 69 percent; Hispanic or Latino, 23 percent
--Adults with bachelor’s degrees: 20 percent
--2012 election: Romney 53 percent
--Residents age 65 or older: 19 percent
--The leader of the first group white men to survey the region was John C. Fremont in 1843. Twelve years later he would be the Republican Party’s first presidential nominee.

2012 Republican Caucus result: Mitt Romney, 38 percent; Newt Gingrich, 32 percent; Ron Paul, 15 percent; Rick Santorum, 14 percent

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POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
National GOP nomination: Trump 34.2 percent; Cruz 20.6 percent; Rubio 16 percent; Kasich 8.6; Carson 6.6 percent; Bush 5.4 percent
National Dem nomination: Clinton 47.6 percent; Sanders 42 percent
South Carolina Dem Primary: Clinton 57.4 percent; Sanders 33.3 percent
General Election: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +2.8 points
Generic Congressional Vote: Democrats +1

SOUND OFF: READER’S RESPOND TO  NEVADA POWER INDEX
“Rubio is a good man. I believe he’d do ok as president. However, he isn’t his own man he is beholden to those in the party. Cruz is a strict Constructionist. Which, in my view is what we need.” – Bryan West

“I think that Rubio ought to offer Cruz a Supreme Court appointment for him to quit and endorse him!  He would be much better as a Supreme Court Justice!” – Helen Anderson

“National polls consistently show Trump loses to Clinton while the same national polls show Rubio strongly beating Clinton.  Conservatives need to decide if they want to win an election or simply make a statement.” – Steve Bartlett

“I have been a life-long, committed Republican. However, if Donald Trump becomes the GOP standard-bearer, there is no room in the party for me or the 70% of Republican voters who don’t support him.” – Mary Heller

[GOP delegate count: Trump 67; Cruz 11; Rubio 10; Kasich 5; Carson 3 (1,237 needed to win)]

KNOWING WHERE THE BODIES AREN’T BURIED
Nevada is sparsely populated state filled with stories and legends of the Old West. One such legend involved the state’s prized accomplishment: Hoover Dam. Las Vegas Review-Journal brings us the story: “Southern Nevada legend has it that during the five years of Hoover Dam construction, some workers were killed on the job and accidentally buried in the dam’s cement structure. Ninety-six construction workers died constructing the historic dam from 1931 to 1936, according to a report from the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Over 100 additional dam workers died off the job from causes including pneumonia, meningitis and typhoid fever. But none of them could have been buried in the Hoover Dam itself, said Dennis McBride, director of the Nevada State Museum who once worked for the Bureau of Reclamation at the dam… ‘The forms were big enough that the concrete, that pore, would only come up maybe to about a worker’s ankles,’ McBride explained. ‘So there couldn’t have possibly been anyone buried.’”

AND NOW A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“I think [Jeb Bush] bowed out with remarkable graciousness. And I think he deserves credit for that, and for not waiting until the morning.  He knew he had to cut it off.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier”

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.