FOX5 Vegas - KVVUNevadans weigh in on State of the Union

Nevadans gathered around televisions as President Barack Obama took to the airwaves for his third State of the Union address.

The president's speech comes hours before his arrival in Las Vegas.

Democrats gathered in Theatre Seven in downtown Las Vegas to watch Obama speak. While the president received a lot of applause, the loudest cheers came when he spoke about shrinking the gap between rich and poor.

"We can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules," said Obama.

The message resonated with Democrat Mark Nash.

"We need to make sure that the system is not rigged, that everybody has the same opportunity to succeed," he said.

Throughout his address, Obama had to do more than preach to the choir. At Born and Raised, a group of Las Vegas Republicans were also listening to the speech.

"Asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes is what most Americans would call common sense," said Obama.

To that, someone in the crowd shouted, "Do you have a math class at Harvard?"

Republicans were most critical since they felt the commander in chief didn't articulate a clear path forward for the country.

"It was the same old, usual thing," said Ray Fesler. "He was campaigning. You could tell that he was in the campaign mode."

Chris Miller, the chair of the Clark County Democratic Party, said that happens with any president in any election year. He said it's the president's job to remind voters how Republicans ran the country.

"We've been there and we don't want to go back to those policies," said Miller. "Those policies got us into this mess."

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