“Let’s talk about Culinary health care,” says Mike. Holding a Bernie sign in one hand and a microphone in the other, Mike is standing at the front of a cavernous wood-paneled ballroom at the Park MGM casino and hotel in Las Vegas. Nearly two hundred people, most dressed in work uniforms, are gathered here beneath gleaming chandeliers.

Most of these hotel and casino workers are immigrant women. They’re here to participate in the Nevada Democratic Party caucus. This caucus, a “strip caucus,” is specifically for people who work on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturdays. They’re taking time away from work to be here. Nearly all of them are represented by the Culinary Union Local 226.

Mike is giving a realignment speech, meant to persuade those who aligned with nonviable candidates, in this case Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren, to come over to Bernie Sanders. The topic on everyone’s mind is health care, specifically what will happen to the health insurance provided by the union.