LAS VEGAS – If Mitt Romney wins the Nevada caucus Saturday, he might well feel special gratitude for the state’s Mormon voters.
Romney, a Mormon himself with close ties to church leaders, is expected to carry an overwhelming majority of votes from Nevada members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, most Republican Mormon voters backed him here in the presidential caucus four years ago.
Courting the Mormon vote in a Republican contest in Nevada and other Western states is somewhat akin to wooing evangelicals in South Carolina or Iowa: It’s hard to win without them.
“Along with seniors, they are as reliable of a voting bloc as there is,” said Robert Uithoven, a Republican consultant based in Reno. “I don’t care if it is snowing sideways on Election Day, they show up.”
There are just over 175,000 Mormons in the state, roughly 7 percent of Nevada’s population. But they carry more clout than that because they turn out in such high numbers. Nearly a quarter of all 2008 Republican presidential caucus voters here were Mormon.
With so much at stake, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are working to make their own cases that they share Mormon values. But it’s
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