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June 4, 2012

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In Nevada, Clinton’s team shoots from stoic to jubilant

Even as New Hampshire looked bleak, they campaigned away

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Tiffany Brown

Clinton communications staff checks New Hampshire primary results Tuesday from the “war room” at Las Vegas campaign headquarters.

By (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The scream heard throughout the office complex came as the vote in New Hampshire showed that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign wasn’t dying.

After a day of stoicism and low expectations, Clinton’s Nevada campaign headquarters erupted into shouts, hugs and high-fives on Tuesday.

“The game is tied, baby,” one Nevada staff member shouted. “Bring it here.”

In the early evening, staff and volunteers at the Tropicana Avenue headquarters had been pessimistic about the New York senator’s chances in New Hampshire. They girded themselves for a last stand in Nevada they hoped would slow the surging candidacy of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

As the returns from New Hampshire trickled in, a few volunteers and staff members worked phones to shore up support among Clinton voters. That room had no television. The workers had no Internet access.

But they knew the early line against their candidate as the people they called asked whether Clinton would stay in the race.

“No matter what happens in New Hampshire, we’re still working hard here in Nevada,” staff member Agnes Terry said into a phone.

Then as televisions elsewhere in the complex showed New Hampshire tallies favoring Clinton, word quickly reached the telephone crew. “What are the voters doing?” one staffer asked when results from 10 percent of precincts showed Clinton with a slight lead over Obama.

As the trend continued, two workers high-fived.

Clinton’s senior staff bunkered behind closed doors as the returns came in. Only after news outlets declared Clinton the winner did they emerge, shouting into cell phones as they called Clinton supporters to share the sudden excitement.

“Reporters are going to have to rewrite all their stories,” Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, chairman of Clinton’s Nevada campaign, said with relish. “We’ll have the momentum in Nevada.”

Before that, Clinton and others had pointed to the differences between Nevada and the two earlier states that, even without momentum from New Hampshire, they thought could lead to a Clinton win.

Clinton’s team worked hard to secure endorsements in Nevada. They think their campaign strategy, focused on regular voters, is smarter than Obama’s strategy of reaching out to unproven voters. Nevada has a smaller share of registered independent voters, who have given Obama boosts elsewhere.

“There’s still a long way to go,” Clinton volunteer Liz Carrasco said.

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