Christine Cloud never thought her life would end up like this.  

At age 63, she's been forced to move back home to live with her 83-year-old widower father.

"I can't afford to pay rent on my own, and he can't afford to make his house payment on his own," she says. 

The retired doctor's office manager had to make the move after the monthly rent on her Las Vegas two-bedroom apartment was hiked from $US1,200 to $US1,500 ($1,800-$2,200).

And it's not just housing costs that have skyrocketed. 

"Everything's up," she says. "Gas prices are crazy, food's gone way up. Eggs, bread, milk, meat, the basics just went through the roof." 

Christine, who used to be a registered Democrat, is quick to ascribe blame to that party. 

So, despite some apprehensions, she's planning to vote for former Republican president Donald Trump in November.

"It's, like, lesser of two evils," she says. 

"Since 2020 things have like taken a dive. It's not working. It was not like that when Trump was president.

"[Trump's] a little scary. He is. But I think that's why he was effective, because people are a little afraid of him." 

Biden's Nevada problem

The sun-drenched state of Nevada's been suffering from some of the highest inflation in the nation.

Housing is a particular pain point. By one estimate, rents in the Las Vegas area are 30 per cent higher than they were in January 2020.

It's also difficult if you're trying to buy. 

The median home listing price in Vegas has increased from around $US343,000 in January 2021 to about $US460,000, even as interest rates have climbed dramatically.

Christine switched her allegiance away from the Democrats in 2020. She was motivated in part by the Black Lives Matter protests that swept across the nation, some of which were marred by violence and property damage. She was angered to see some members of the party supporting them.

"I just thought, the Democrats are crazy," she says. "I've been in this group that's crazy all this time."

Border security, which she thinks the Republicans are much stronger on, is also a major issue for her in the upcoming election. But it's inflation that's the main driver of her vote. 

Christine is an example of the problem President Joe Biden's campaign is facing in Nevada. 

The state has voted for the Democratic candidate at the past four presidential elections.  

Biden won the state by more than 2 per cent over Trump in 2020.

But most recent polling shows Trump has opened a lead in the state. One recent poll found the economy was the key issue for nearly a third of voters, and for 45 per cent of Trump supporters.

Competing narratives

There are countervailing economic narratives at play in the US. The Biden administration points to high economic growth and low unemployment as proof of the success of his economic policies, including his aggressive moves to support industrial production in the US.

Christine says she's not swayed by this argument. 

"I know that they say that about unemployment and all that. But people in their day-to-day lives, they feel it in their pockets."

Biden's term has been bedevilled by high inflation. It's come well down from the 9.1 per cent recorded in June 2022, but it's still running at above 3 per cent, which is higher than the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent target.

What caused inflation to spike is highly contested. A huge amount of stimulus was pumped into the economy by both the Trump and Biden administrations as they tried to insulate the economy during the COVID pandemic. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the trade sanctions that followed also caused prices to spike around the world.

But fairly or not, many voters lay the blame at Biden's door and it's the compounding of those price increases that is particularly difficult for his administration to overcome. On average, prices are now up about 20 per cent since Biden took office.

In recent times, wage increases have outstripped price rises, leaving workers better off on average. But "Bidenomics" does not seem to be working for Biden politically with people like Christine.

'Better than the felon'

Nevada is known globally for its liberal gambling laws and the bright lights and shows of the Vegas strip. The state has ridden both boom and bust over time. Huge wealth was generated through the discovery of gold and silver, but it's the tourism industry that's now the backbone of the economy. It was badly hurt during COVID, but it's mostly bounced back.

When the ABC visited in June, the state was sweltering in an extraordinary, record-breaking heatwave.

In a garage gym, with air-conditioning and multiple fans running at full capacity, personal trainer Will McMichael was putting his client Eliza Turner through her paces.  

Dressed in a "Veterans for Biden" tank top, he leaves no doubt as to who he'll be voting for at November's election. But his words of support aren't as enthusiastic an endorsement as you might expect.

"I'm not a Biden stan," he says. "I think that he is competent, which makes him 1,000 times better than the felon."

Will, 41, moved to Nevada six years ago, one of the many Californians who've shifted to the neighbouring state in recent years. The former soldier originally moved to the state as a firearms instructor.

When the ABC asked him what he saw as the biggest issue at the election, he answered, "For voters in Nevada, always, economy, economy, of course."

But for him personally, it's about the very future of the US — what some pollsters have come to calling "saving democracy" when trying to gauge sentiment.

"The major issue for me in this election is stemming the tide of autocracy," Will says. 

"I think that Trump has pretty much told us he is an autocrat." 

Trump's failure to accept his loss at the 2020 presidential election, and his continued support for those involved in the January 6 riot on the US Capitol, remain a concern for his detractors. He's still facing a federal trial over his role on the historic day, although it's unlikely to occur before the election.  

And while he has been found guilty of falsifying business records during the 2016 election campaign, his sentencing has been postponed as his lawyers argue a recent Supreme Court ruling means his conviction should be overturned.

Weighing a protest vote

Eliza says she doesn't understand how Trump's still one of the major candidates for commander-in-chief. 

"It's just unbelievable to me that we have a literal convicted felon as a frontrunner to the Republican Party and very likely has a chance at becoming the president again," she says.

But that doesn't mean she's a lock to vote for Biden. 

As a transgender woman, she says the top issue for her would "kind of be the obvious thing — LGBTQ rights, specifically transgender rights, which are obviously a very hot-button topic this year". 

But coming in a close second is the cost of living. 

"The economy in general is at a pretty bad state right now," she says.

"I started off four years ago doing pretty well financially, in a relatively decent job and doing pretty well in living here. 

"But each year, it's just becoming harder and harder just to get by. And at this point in time, I'm more or less living just month to month." 

Eliza's considering supporting a third-party candidate, but says she's weighing the potential impact of her vote carefully. 

"Maybe I shouldn't do a protest vote this time," she says. 

"Maybe I should just swallow my pride and just vote for Biden again to do my part to keep things from getting exponentially worse."

Courting the 'Latino vote'

Democrats have traditionally counted on strong support from the Latino community. In Nevada, where almost 30 per cent of people identify as Hispanic or Latino, it's crucial.

David Damore, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, says about 60 per cent of the state's Latino population is Democratic. Another 20 per cent is Republican, and the remaining 20 per cent is non-partisan, he says.

But conservatives are making concerted efforts to woo the so-called "Latino vote". Among them are the LIBRE Initiative, a group that advocates for free-market policies in Hispanic communities.

Eddie Diaz, the group's strategic director in Nevada, says he's constantly hearing complaints from Latinos about rising living costs.

"Inflation has hurt people a lot," he says. "And right now they see that that's coming from the Democrat party, right? That they're not delivering on their promises to solve this whole economic crisis."

Many Republicans have long believed that eventually Latinos would cross the political aisle. Then-president Ronald Reagan declared back in 1983, "Latinos are Republicans – they just don't know it yet". Eddie subscribes to that thinking.

"I feel, as Hispanics and Latinos, we're more of a conservative base," he says. 

"We believe in family, we believe in God and we believe in hard work. But the messaging was not out there."

Others in the community see things differently. 

The Voto Latino organisation, which claims to have registered more than 1 million Latino voters since 2012, is endorsing Biden. It points to Trump's policies "that separated parents from their children at the border and put children in cages", and says he poses an "unprecedented threat" to Latinos. In contrast, the group praises Biden's expansion of healthcare coverage and price cuts for prescription drugs.