What's the Matter With Nevada?

Most of the polls I've seen in Nevada have had narrow Republican leads in both the Governor's race and, more distressingly, in the Senate contest. Nevada had been a state that seemed to be trending blue, so this is especially disheartening in a year Democrats can't afford extra bad news.

One element I've seen increasing chatter about in the past few weeks is that the Nevada Democratic Party has been doing a terrible job of rallying voters to the polls. The state party had a notoriously good turnout machine that was the legacy of former Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, but Reid's team was dumped last year after a slate endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America took over the organization in 2021. Quite a few people have suggested that the new DSA party leaders have let Reid's work wither, and the result may be the loss of a Senate seat we can ill afford.

Of course, this is all chatter. Putting aside that the election isn't over until it's over, these complaints could be leftover sour grapes from the changing of the Nevada party guard. It's not as if Catherine Cortez Masto would've coasted to victory even under the best of circumstances, after all. So I'd like to hear more. 

Still, it does not strike me as implausible, based on what little I know if the internal Democratic politics in Nevada, that the new regime would (by arrogance or incompetence) run the party apparatus into the ground. Precisely because they often take it as an article of faith that they are the true voice of the masses, DSA sorts sometimes have a dangerous habit of overlooking the gritty work of actual building mass democratic power (see also: losing to a write-in campaign after successfully winning a Democratic primary for the Buffalo mayorship). If they end up costing the party a winnable Senate race, that would be a serious black eye and a near-unforgivable sin.