LAS VEGAS — As Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders compete for every vote before Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, they look for support among members of the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group. Asian-Americans comprise 6 percent of the U.S. population, and their numbers have increased 56 percent since 2000. In Nevada, Asian-Americans are 9 percent of the population.

Asian-Americans encompass a diverse range of people, among them recent Chinese immigrants, Muslims from Pakistan, Filipino-American Catholics and U.S. citizens from Hawaii. Campaigns are paying attention.

“It’s a fast-growing population, it’s young, people are getting engaged,” said Shu-Yen Wei, who spearheads Asian-American outreach for the Democratic National Committee.

Since the 1990s, exit polls have found Asian-Americans voting increasingly Democratic during presidential elections, with 73 percent backing President Barack Obama in 2012. Analysts attributed that to Republican criticism of illegal immigration.

But in the 2014 midterm elections, Asian voters appeared to split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Their numbers are small enough so that it’s difficult to rely on polling to determine their leanings. Analysts agree that most do not register with a political party, and they have among the lowest turnout rates of any group.

“There’s a huge, unaffiliated voting bloc of Asian Americans,” said Jason Chung, the Republican National Committee’s director of Asian Pacific American Initiatives. “We’re working hard to grow our party and include Asian-Americans in our political process.”

Nevada’s Asian-American population shows why it’s so hard to sum up the community’s politics. It ranges from dedicated union activists to anti-abortion rights Filipino-American churchgoers, sprinkled with so many who have relocated from Hawaii that Las Vegas is often called “the ninth island.”

Las Vegas financial planner Derek Uehara underscores that diversity. A registered Republican, he’s sympathetic to front-runner Donald Trump and thinks others may warm to the billionaire’s businesslike approach. “That can appeal to the Asian-American community, if the focus is on hard work and getting things done,” Uehara said. “There’s a huge opportunity here, but no one knows how to tap into it.”

As Nevada’s caucuses draw closer, there’s been a surge in activity aimed at attracting Asian voters. The Sanders campaign held a “multiethnic” meeting Sunday that included Asian-American community leaders. But all agree the Clinton campaign, with a robust staff in the state for months, has had the most sustained outreach with a series of Asian-American themed events: dinners celebrating a Filipino holiday, Asian-American-themed phone banks and canvasses, and more.

At a recent caucus training for Asian-American Democrats in Las Vegas, the Clinton campaign’s national director of Asian-American and Pacific Islander outreach, Lisa Changaveja, mentioned that Clinton’s longtime aide Huma Abedin and campaign finance chairman Dennis Cheng are both Asian-American.

At the caucus training in Las Vegas, the Sanders campaign countered with an organizer who played a song about the Vermont senator on his ukulele, and a casino worker who is saddled with student debt and enthusiastic about the senator’s free college plan. They contend Asian-Americans will embrace Sanders.

“Asian-Americans, as they’re getting to know Sanders, they’re gravitating toward the campaign,” said Zaffar Iqbal, a physician who lives in Las Vegas and was drawn to Sanders by his call for a government-financed health care system. “This community has pretty much the same issues as any other community.”

NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press