--- title: Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada description: Lower voter turnout and Hillary Clinton’s familiarity with Nevada contributed to Bernie Sanders’ loss in the state’s caucuses, he said canonical: https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-21T15:44:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:22.551Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada og:description: "We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout" og:url: https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada twitter:description: "We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada ## Video: TIME Raw: Clinton Celebrates Nevada Win [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Clinton Celebrates Nevada Win](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RPsWiyz3.m3u8) (0:46)  _Published 2016-02-21_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Feb 21, 2016 3:44 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Feb 21, 2016 3:44 PM UTC Lower voter turnout and Hillary Clinton’s familiarity with Nevada contributed to Bernie Sanders’ loss in the state’s caucuses, [the Vermont Senator said Sunday](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/21/bernie-sanders-says-lower-turnout-contributed-to-his-nevada-loss-to-hillary-clinton/). Sanders said he failed to draw enough people to the polls in Nevada, where his Democratic presidential rival [Clinton won Saturday with nearly 53% support](http://time.com/4231739/hillary-clinton-nevada-caucuses-texas/?xid=homepage), according to the Washington _Post_. “What I’ve said over and over again, we will do well when young people, when working-class people come out,” [Sanders said on NBC’s _Meet the Press_](https://twitter.com/meetthepress/status/701410996750041088). “We do not do well when the voter turnout is not large. We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout.” Sanders also said [Clinton had a leg up in the state](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clintons-victory-in-nevada-democratic-caucus/) from competing against Barack Obama and John Edwards in 2008\. “She knew Nevada a lot better than we did. She had the names of a lot of her supporters,” he said. “So I am proud of the campaign that we ran. Obviously, I wish we could have done a little bit better. But at the end of the day, I think she gets 19 delegates, we get 15 delegates, we move onto the next state.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada","datePublished":"2016-02-21T15:44:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:22.551Z","description":"\"We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout\"","url":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/","name":"Bernie Sanders Says Low Voter Turnout Led to Loss in Nevada"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Raw: Clinton Celebrates Nevada Win","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/RPsWiyz3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-02-21T16:03:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RPsWiyz3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/","duration":"PT46S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4231803/bernie-sanders-nevada-voter-turnout/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```