A battle is raging in Las Vegas for working-class voters in Nevada

As the sun sets over Las Vegas, Nicole Williams gets to work serving drinks behind the bar of an opulent hotel on the city's infamous Strip.

But life is anything but luxurious for Ms. Williams, 45, and other service workers who form the quiet backbone of Las Vegas' booming economy.

“When you're shopping for a big family like mine, it's rough out here,” she told the BBC as she shopped for groceries and took children to appointments across the city.

The mother of seven children aged 10 months to 16 years said she often fears collapsing under the weight of the economy.

From sky-high prices for groceries to gas, Ms. Williams said she had to cut vacation days as well as soccer and gymnastics lessons for her children, forcing her to stretch her already strained household budget.

“We weren’t able to do the things we wanted to do,” she said. “I want a future for my children.”

She is not alone. In dozens of interviews with Las Vegans who work in vital local industries, from construction to casinos to restaurants and bars, low-paid workers from across the political spectrum told the BBC that problems at the kitchen table – particularly unaffordable housing and costly childcare – are the cause will determine how they vote on November 5th.

It is these voters who are trying to win over Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in Nevada, a hotly contested state where the two remain tied in the polls.

To woo low-wage workers, Harris and Trump have laid out starkly different economic visions, including competing anti-poverty policies that could help improve the financial security of millions of families.

But in unpredictable Nevada – one of the key states that will decide who becomes the next president – only a tiny fraction of undecided voters there will clinch victory, political insiders say.

Data shows that about a third of the state's voters consider themselves independent. A New York Times/Siena poll of likely voters in August found a slim majority of independents leaning Republican (43%) compared to those leaning Democratic (39%).

“Nevada is not a blue state,” said Ted Pappageorge, the secretary-treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226, referring to the traditional color of the Democratic Party (Republicans are red).

The politically powerful group has endorsed Harris.

“We’re barely purple. If the election were held now, we think Trump would win,” he added.