Pocketbook issues strain, but don’t always sway, Nevada voters

MESQUITE, Nevada — Families here, and across swing state Nevada, are ponying up an average of $1,196 per month more than they did before “Bidenomics” and its subsequent inflation took hold, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee reported in August.

But in this retirement community, where three casino resorts attract customers from Utah 40-some-odd miles north and a small slice of Arizona next door, inflation has had a mixed impact on the locals who spoke with The Post.

While not every voter said their ballot choice will turn on their bankbook, almost all said the state of the economy was on their minds this year.

Mike Massong, 77, lives in a Sun City Mesquite home in a community for residents 55 and up. Unlike most of his neighbors, his house sports a Harris-Walz sign, one of two visible, versus four Trump signs and one Trump-lettered American flag.

The retired manufacturers’ representative who moved here from Littleton, Colo. said although he and his wife Janice were “hanging in” economically, their finances were “pretty good” overall.

“The big thing is they blame the inflation on Biden,” Massong said. “The inflation is due to the pandemic. Every country in the world had inflation problems, even Japan. Japan had 2% inflation, and they hardly ever have inflation over there.”

He said the Biden-Harris stimulus spending — which critics say fueled inflation that reached as high as 9.1% in the past three years — was necessary.

“What if they wouldn’t have done that? What would happen to a lot of these people, and a lot of these businesses would have gone out of business, and a lot of these people would have been in dire trouble,” Massong said.

But Wally Pousy, a retired Washington state employee who moved to Mesquite nine years ago, said he and his wife aren’t doing any better now. Speaking to The Post while loading groceries from the local supermarket into their car, they named higher food and gasoline prices under Biden-Harris as the culprit.

“We’re voting for Trump,” the 79-year-old Pousy said. Asked if that was because he believed the ex-prez would tackle inflation once in office, he replied, “That, and quite a few other things.”

Sue Berkey, a former Californian who first lived in Reno before she and her husband decided on Mesquite, said they’re doing better financially because the home they sold up north brought more money than their new residence here would cost.

One year ago, Mesquite, Nevada, residents paid $5.15 a gallon for gas, but only if they paid in cash. Credit and debit card buyers paid an extra 10 cents per gallon. October 2024 prices are about $1.30 per gallon lower, but the cost of fuel remains an issue here. N.Y. Post/Mark A. Kellner

But inflation is taking its toll, especially with food prices. “My husband loves to eat, so it costs money,” she said, smiling.

Berkey said she’ll vote for Trump, telling The Post: “I think he did a lot the last time he was in there, but soon as he went out, they changed everything, like the pipeline, the oil pipeline, and then the border and stuff like that. So I think he needs to get back in there to do something.”

Views of local mesas and comfortable backyards attract retirees and others to Sun City Mesquite, a growing Nevada community some 90 minutes from Las Vegas. N.Y. Post/Mark A. Kellner

Even those in the small Arizona towns immediately adjacent to Nevada live in the shadow of the Silver State’s economy. There’s no supermarket in Scenic, a small town of around 2,500 people some five miles from Mesquite, so residents trundle over to Smith’s supermarket for grocery shopping.

At the Scenic General Store, the town’s only retail business, the lines can be long when a Powerball or MegaMillions jackpot is high. Customers from Nevada and Utah come over hoping the store’s “luck” — it’s sold some big winners — will rub off.

Alexandrea Carlson, 55, the store’s owner, tells The Post she is “absolutely not” doing better economically than she was four years ago.

“The insurance companies have more than quadrupled their rates on homeowners and auto insurance,” she said. “And food prices, of course, have skyrocketed.”

Carlson’s remedy?

“You just work harder. You have to diversify your investments and your time,” she said.

The entrepreneur said she’s still going to vote for Trump, “period.”

“Our economy was good when we had Trump in office,” she said.