MELISSA BLOCK, host:
There's no rest for the Democrats either. In Nevada, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama are in just as tight a race as the Republicans are. Nevada holds the first western nominating contest on Saturday.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports from Henderson, Nevada.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Nevada differs in several ways from the contests that have come before, in Iowa and New Hampshire. It's a lot less whites for one thing, a point that "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera made last night during a rally at a Las Vegas high school for Hillary Clinton.
Ms. AMERICA FERRERA (Actress): The minorities in this country, the Latinos in this country, the African-Americans in this country are ready to be heard.
HORSLEY: Nevada is also struggling economically, with the nation's highest home foreclosure rate and a higher-than-average unemployment rate. Clinton and the other Democrats have all offered up proposals to stimulate the economy.
Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York; Presidential Candidate): You know, we are going to restore a strong and prosperous middle class and that begins by having an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well-connected who have been very well taken care of by George Bush.
HORSLEY: Nevada also has a higher proportion of union members than either Iowa or New Hampshire. And those unions could play a big role in getting people out to the caucuses on Saturday. Barack Obama scored the endorsement of the state's biggest union, the Culinary Workers, which represents many casino employees. And there were a lot of union members in attendance this morning when Obama held a town hall meeting just outside Las Vegas.
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Presidential Candidate): What a healthy, vibrant union movement does is it gives the employers incentive - even if they don't have a unionized workforce - to pay decent wages, to provide decent benefits, and that's very important.
HORSLEY: Like Clinton, Obama has called for tens of billions of dollars worth stimulus for the economy. He says he's heard personally from Nevada residents at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. And he blames lax federal oversight for allowing the mortgage crunch to get out of hand.
Sen. OBAMA: We've got to have an advocate, who recognizes that the American dream is for all people, not just some people. That's why I'm running to be president of the United States of America.
HORSLEY: John Edwards holds his own town hall meeting tonight at a union headquarters in Las Vegas. Nevada could be a chance for Edwards to show it's still a three-person race among the Democrats. The latest poll by the Reno Gazette Journal shows Edwards, Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Henderson, Nevada.