Nye County Democratic Convention to take place on Saturday

Nye County Democrats will select delegates for the Nevada Democratic State Convention on Saturday.

The Nye County Democratic Convention will be held at the Pahrump Senior Center, located at 1370 W. Basin Road in Pahrump.

Nye County Democratic Party Central Committee Chairman Cliff Arnold said the convention will downsize the number of delegates that will head to the state convention in April.

“We are expecting 160 people who are registered as delegates and alternate delegates,” Arnold said.

The convention will start at 9 a.m. and end when all delegates are elected for the state convention in Las Vegas.

Nye County has 160 delegates; 94 of them back Clinton and 65 pledged their support to Sanders while one delegate is still uncommitted.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the Democratic Caucus in Nye County on Feb.20. Clinton captured 59 percent of the vote compared to Sanders’ 41 percent, a much wider margin of support than the 53 percent to 47 percent she received statewide.

County conventions gather in each of Nevada’s 17 counties to choose delegates to the state Democratic convention.

Precincts throughout Nevada awarded 12,000 delegates to the two candidates. The delegates go to county party conventions in April, where county delegates are picked for the party’s state convention in May. Winners there go on to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

About 15 percent of the delegate votes will come from superdelegates who currently serve in the office or have served in the past.

Nevada will send 43 delegates to Philadelphia. Of those, 23 delegates who worked their way up from the caucuses; 13 pledged and unpledged party leaders and elected officials; and seven at-large delegates.