WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Friday urged Democrats running for president to invest time campaigning in his state sayingthat winning Western states is key to taking back control of the White House in 2008.

"If you win in Nevada you win in the West," Reid told a standing room audience of Democrats meeting in the nation's capital this weekend. "If you win in the West, you win the White House."

Reid is credited with helping to convince the Democratic National Committee to allow Nevada to move up its caucuses to the early part of the presidential nominating calendar. Nevada will be the second state in the Democratic nominating contest in January 2008 following the Iowa caucuses and right before the New Hampshire primary. It is unclear if New Hampshire will comply with the DNC nominating calendar.