This is what could ironically be described as a “hard blow”.
The main rival to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the American presidential election Nikki Haley obtained only 32% of the votes this Tuesday during the primary in the state of Nevada.
Problem, Donald Trump not being a candidate in this state, Nikki Haley was largely beaten by the ballots marked “none of these candidates”.
This result, even if it has no consequences, is a new setback for Nikki Haley, the only candidate still in the running against Trump.
The former American ambassador to the UN has already lost to the former president in Iowa and New Hampshire and seems poorly on track to win on February 24 in South Carolina, where she was governor.
The Nevada Republican primary was non-challenging, due to the complex electoral rules adopted by the Republican Party.
Special rules
Because the 26 delegates from Nevada who will participate in the nomination of the Republican candidate for the White House will be determined this Thursday, during the caucuses: local assemblies held in schools or gymnasiums, in which Nikki Haley will not participate and where Donald Trump is the only major candidate.
This illegible system, which sows confusion among voters, is due to disagreements between Nevada authorities and the Republican Party.
This western American state, which is home to the gambling capital Las Vegas, had chosen in 2021 to change its electoral system, and to abandon its traditional caucuses for primaries which allow voting by mail.
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But in an America where Donald Trump is still contesting his 2020 defeat against Joe Biden, voting by mail is the subject of conspiracy theories likening it to a scheme to manipulate the results.
The “Grand Old Party” has therefore chosen to maintain its caucuses, which must be attended in person.
And he ruled that only the outcome of the caucuses would count toward the nomination, further barring candidates in Tuesday's primaries from participating in Thursday's caucuses.
Nikki Haley will therefore not be a candidate during the caucuses.
The Republican Party has been accused of favoring Donald Trump, whose voters are more likely to turn out, with its decision.
This Monday, Nikki Haley's campaign manager declared that the process chosen by Nevada was "rigged in Trump's favor."
Already victorious in Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump could crush Nikki Haley in early March during "Super Tuesday", where 15 states are at stake. Enough to make his lead insurmountable in the event of victory.
Donald Trump almost assured of winning
Without waiting for this confirmation, he is already considered in fact as the Republican candidate for the White House by his own party and by the current occupant of the Oval Office, Joe Biden.
The next Republican primary must take place in South Carolina.
Although the ex-governor has the advantage of being on her home turf, the polls promise her a defeat.
Her refusal to throw in the towel openly irritates Donald Trump, who regularly utters racial insults against her and uses her full first name, Nimarata, to remind people that she comes from a family of immigrants.
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A strategy similar to the one he used against Barack Obama, when he called him by his middle name Hussein, to wrongly accuse him of being an illegitimate president because he was born outside the United States.
A primary was also organized for Democrats in Nevada.
It was won handily by Joe Biden.
Earlier this Tuesday, the current president attacked his predecessor, whom he accused of wanting to torpedo a budget project including a reform of migration policy, for which an agreement between the two parties seemed to have been reached in the Senate .
This compromise seems on the verge of collapse, with Joe Biden blaming pressure from Donald Trump on congressional Republicans.
The November presidential election promises to be close: polls give Joe Biden and Donald Trump neck-and-neck and suggest that most Americans are unenthusiastic about the idea of another match between the two men.
In this context, Nevada is one of the handful of key states that will decide the future of the country.
In 2020, Joe Biden won by a narrow margin, with a lead of 33,000 votes.