Nevada bill aims to make its presidential primary first in the nation

A new bill in Nevada would change that state’s presidential caucus to a primary and move the date of the quadrennial contest up to late January, leap frogging Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, which have kicked off the presidential nominating calendar for decades.

Nevada is currently the third state to hold a presidential nominating contest in the Democratic calendar, and the fourth state in the Republican calendar, following the South Carolina primary. The bill comes after former longtime Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who served for eight years as Senate majority leader, made waves in interviews in December and early this month in urging that Nevada leapfrog to the start of the nominating calendar.