Three Republican Presidential Candidates Visit Northern Nevada |

Three Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to campaign in Northern Nevada on Wednesday.

Dr. Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul participated in CNN's Republican Presidential Debate on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Nielsen says 18 million people watched the top contender debate, that also featured Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and John Kasich.

Dr. Ben Carson is scheduled to visit both Carson City and Elko on Wednesday.

The retired neurosurgeon spoke at the Carson City Community Center earlier in the afternoon, and was scheduled to go to Elko to speak at the Elko Convention Center around 6 p.m.

While in Carson City, he touched on the importance of information and education. "Knowledge, education, being informed, what an amazing difference it makes on people's lives."

If elected, he said he would have each department cut its budget by 2-3% and would not replace retired workers.

Officials said they were working on getting him back to the Silver State next month. The plan is for him to stop at rural towns across Nevada.

Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina headlined an energy policy event at the Atlantis casino. The free event was organized by conservative group Americans for Prosperity as part of their Road to Reform discussion series. Americans for Prosperity is supported by the industrialist Koch brothers.

"The United States of America should be the global energy powerhouse of the 21st century. It creates millions of jobs, it lowers energy costs for Nevada families, families all across this country, but it also lowers energy costs for people all around the world."

Fiorina has said government has become a "crushing weight" preventing the U.S. from becoming an energy powerhouse.

And Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul held a ‘Stand with Rand’ meet-and-greet at the Washoe County Republican Party Headquarters.

Earlier in the day, Paul spoke at The Economic Club of Las Vegas. During the event, he said he'd be inclined to return federal land for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site back to the state, and "you decide what you want to do with Yucca Mountain."

The Kentucky senator joked he couldn't come to Nevada without getting a Yucca Mountain question and said he generally supports states being given control of land.

Nevada is the fourth state to hold its caucus.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)