According to the Associated Press, Nikki Haley was outvoted Tuesday in Nevada’s Republican presidential primary with the “none of these candidates” option, an embarrassment in a contest in which she faced no direct competition.
The primary, which does not award delegates, appeared to be a foregone conclusion since former President Donald J. Trump decided not to participate. On Thursday, he will instead attend the party’s caucuses that will award all 26 of the state’s delegates, a decision by Nevada Republicans that complicated the process and essentially rendered the primary irrelevant.
As the front-runner after “None of these candidates,” Ms. Haley is still expected to be declared the winner, according to the secretary of state, who pointed to a state election law that says “votes cast only for the named candidates will be cast.” When determining the result, “candidates are counted”.
But Ms. Haley skipped the Nevada campaign entirely, choosing instead to spend her time in South Carolina, her home state and the site of the next primary after Mr. Trump won the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire won with ease. Ms. Haley is expected to hold a rally on Wednesday in California, a Super Tuesday state.
Mr. Trump’s supporters in Nevada, including Gov. Joe Lombardo, had voted to select “None of these candidates” in the primary as a protest vote against Ms. Haley. Republicans can then vote for Mr. Trump in the caucuses two days later, where he will essentially run unopposed after Ms. Haley, his last major rival, decided not to run.
Mr Trump criticized Ms Haley’s ugly result in Nevada, writing on his social media site Truth Social that it had been a “bad night” for her. “Watch out, she will win soon!” he wrote, again teasing her about her optimistic speech after she finished second to him in New Hampshire.
The fact that a “none of the above” option could overwhelm any enthusiasm among supporters of Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is a further blow to her slim chances of winning the nomination over Mr. Trump, who remains one Leading roles lead in polls. It also undermines their efforts to demonstrate momentum or at least achieve a symbolic victory.
Mark Reynolds, 56, had planned to vote for Mr Trump at Thursday’s caucuses. But on Tuesday morning he stopped by a polling station briefly to vote for “None of these candidates.”
“It’s just about sending a message,” Mr. Reynolds said, noting that the area code itself was a “waste of time.”
Lloyd Reece, 65, was another Trump supporter who showed up on Tuesday to deny Ms Haley a symbolic victory. However, he believed that the “none of these candidates” option was inadequate because state law prohibited an outright victory. Instead, he voted for Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who dropped out of the presidential race months ago.
“She’ll get the message,” Mr. Reece said, hoping that Nevada would deny Ms. Haley the momentum and that “she’ll just give up while she’s behind.”
Critics of Nevada’s dual primary caucus system, including those in Ms. Haley’s camp, have suggested that the state’s Republican Party set it up to benefit Mr. Trump, which the party has denied. Michael McDonald, the state party chairman, was one of the people charged as part of the fraudulent election scheme to overturn President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“We haven’t spent a dime or an ounce of energy on Nevada,” Betsy Ankney, Ms. Haley’s campaign manager, said Tuesday. “We made the decision early on that we would not pay a Trump Organization $55,000 to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump.”
Ms. Haley’s campaign rejected the results on Tuesday evening.
“Even Donald Trump knows that when you play penny slots, the house wins. We didn’t go out of our way to play a game rigged for Trump,” Olivia Perez-Cubas, Ms. Haley’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We’re full steam ahead in South Carolina and beyond.”
The confusing system was criticized by Mr. Lombardo, a Republican, who called it “unacceptable to voters” in an interview with a local news media last year.
Nevada traditionally holds caucuses, but in 2021 a law was passed that abolishes them and switches to primaries, which allow postal voting in addition to in-person voting. The state’s Republican Party decided to hold its own contest – an in-person caucus – forcing candidates to choose a race in which to enter.
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2024-02-07 05:53:13
www.nytimes.com