Nevada Newsmakers Fri, Oct 9 2026

And back on Nevada Newsmakers, we're always pleased to welcome back to the program Fred Larkin.

He is professor of political science at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Pleasure to have you back, sir.

Thank you, sir.

So the big question for me is the independents.

A, are they real, which we've discussed before on this program? Or are they just registered that way? Or are we looking to see how they break?

Well, they're real.

In Nevada, especially, there was a lot of cleaning up, and the numbers there disappeared.

The sizable numbers were reduced.

Because I think when you're at the DMV, you're trying to find something to click on.

And you go with that, but you're intent never to vote.

So they were being removed for not being active voters.

So it's not as large a behemoth as it looked.

But a lot of them are refugees, moderate Republicans that were no longer welcome in the state Republican Party.

When you support Ryan Sandoval and you're not seen as a valued Republican leader, There was a very serious hemorrhage to the state party.

On the Democratic side, when they had the big progressive fight down in Clark County, a number of moderate Democrats moved into that column here in the state as well.

So our individuals had a history of voting, so there is a potential there.

But they don't like either party right now.

So if they're rejecting the party they were in, it doesn't necessarily that they can move to the other party.

And it's going to take some persuading to make them an active block here in November.

All right.

So are you looking, as some are, that people are just not going to vote?

I think we have, as eyes, we were looking for the enthusiasm.

Like in 2024, Republicans had enthusiasm and Democrats didn't.

Four years prior to that, the Democrats had enthusiasm and the Republican didn't.