The former president has triumphed in all Republican contests so far
Donald Trump secured the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses on Thursday, after his only well-known competitor, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, decided not to vie for the state’s delegates.
The former president has now triumphed in all three Republican contests so far — adding Nevada to Iowa and New Hampshire — as he advances toward the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Nevada’s caucuses on Thursday followed the state’s primaries on Tuesday — where President Joe Biden won the Democratic race and “none of these candidates” topped the Republican one, ahead of Haley.
The Nevada Republican Party, which is controlled by Trump supporters, chose not to allocate its delegates through a party-run primary — and excluded candidates who took part in the primary from caucus ballots. This left Trump with only obscure Dallas pastor Ryan Binkley as his opponent on Thursday.
Trump, who was preparing to travel to Nevada to give a victory speech on Thursday, once again tried to push Haley out of the race.
“I think she damages herself, but I think she damages the party, and in a way damages the country,” Trump said outside of his Mar-A-Lago home on Thursday.
Trump’s political future also faced scrutiny beyond the polls on Thursday. Earlier that day, the US Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the former president’s actions around the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol make him unfit for office.
Nevada Republicans were not the only ones caucusing on Thursday. Trump also won the Republican caucuses in the US Virgin Islands, beating Haley for the territory’s four delegates, CNN projects.
Haley suffered a humiliating result on Tuesday in Nevada when she came second to “none of these candidates” in the nonbinding primary — a result that likely showed many GOP voters’ preference for Trump in a state that allows them to voice their displeasure with all candidates on the ballot.
While the primary did not award any delegates, it was a blow for Haley as she tries to convince Republican donors and voters that she is still a strong contender before her next direct clash with Trump in the February 24 South Carolina primary.
“We always knew Nevada was a fraud,” Haley said in a Fox Business interview on Wednesday. “Trump had it fixed from the start. … We didn’t waste a day or a dollar there. We didn’t even care about it.”
Trump, on the other hand, had encouraged his supporters in Nevada to ignore the primary and vote in the caucuses.
“In your state, you have both a primary and a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing,” he told attendees at a recent Las Vegas rally.
The conflicting contests are the outcome of a 2021 state law that replaced Nevada’s presidential caucuses with government-run primaries. Supporters said the change would be easier to manage and less confusing for voters.However, the Nevada Republican Party — which is led by Trump loyalists — decided to hold caucuses this year anyway and award the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention based on those outcomes.
It also cautioned candidates who participated in the primary that they would not be eligible for the caucuses or to receive any delegates.Some Republican presidential hopefuls, including Haley, filed to run in the primary anyway.
Trump is now the only remaining major candidate in Thursday’s caucuses, which practically ensures his victory. (He faces only minor opposition on Thursday’s ballot from little-known Texas pastor Ryan Binkley.)
Democrats distributed their 2024 presidential delegates from Nevada based on the outcomes of Tuesday’s first-in-the-West primary, which President Joe Biden won by a large margin — adding to his victory in South Carolina as he moves closer to securing his party’s nomination for a second term.
