Nevada Democrats report high early caucus participation

Nearly 75,000 Nevadans participated early in the state's Democratic U.S. presidential nominating contest, the party said on Friday, a sign of a potentially large turnout in the first test for the candidates in the diverse western United States.

Nevada on Saturday holds its caucuses, the third contest in the state-by-state battle to determine a Democratic challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. The party said the majority of the early caucus voters were first time participants in the process. The number of early participants is nearly as high as the entire caucus count from 2016 when 84,000 Nevadans participated.