As of: February 9, 2024, 6:14 a.m
By: Christian Stör
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The US Republican primaries continue.
In Nevada you can even vote twice.
Nikki Haley experiences a debacle.
Update from February 9, 2024, 6:10 a.m.:
As expected, Donald Trump won the Republican primary in the US state of Nevada.
The broadcasters CNN and NBC News reported this unanimously late on Thursday evening (local time), citing their own forecasts.
Trump's last serious competitor, Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, had already stood for election on Tuesday - but she received fewer votes than for the option "none of the named candidates".
Trump was not on the ballot on Tuesday because, unlike in the other states, Republicans in Nevada had two different votes on two different days this year.
The background is a dispute over how primary elections should take place in the state.
A classic primary election therefore took place on Tuesday, with Haley on the ballot and without Trump.
However, there were no delegate votes up for grabs for the party's nomination convention.
A so-called caucus followed on Thursday.
In this vote, Trump stood for election, but not Haley.
Unlike Tuesday, the caucus was about delegate votes.
“Nevada is Trump country”: True.
© John Locher/dpa
The next Republican primary is now scheduled for both at the same time on February 24th in South Carolina.
Although Trump clearly dominates the race, Haley remains committed to running in her home state and has numerous campaign appearances planned there in the coming weeks.
Serious defeat for Trump competitor Haley in the US primaries in Nevada
First report:
Las Vegas – For Nikki Haley, the Republican primaries in Nevada were a real failure.
It was already clear beforehand that she definitely wouldn't get a single delegate vote there.
This was due to a dispute between the state and the Republicans.
They boycotted the state-organized primary on February 6th and are holding their own caucus on February 8th.
Haley ran in the primary, Trump is running in the caucus.
The delegates' votes are only awarded at the election meeting.
However, things got even worse for Haley: the former UN ambassador only received just under 31 percent of the vote – significantly less than the option “none of these candidates”.
Almost 63 percent chose this variant, which appealed primarily to Donald Trump fans.
For Haley, the result in Nevada is another setback.
It is also becoming apparent that she will also be defeated in the vote in her home state of South Carolina this month.
According to surveys, she is still clearly lagging behind Donald Trump there.
Here are the results of the primary on February 6th in Nevada:
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option |
Result in percent |
|---|---|
“none of these candidates” |
62.9 |
Nikki Haley |
30.8 |
Mike Pence |
4.0 |
Tim Scott |
1.4 |
John Anthony Castro |
0.3 |
Hirsh V. Singh |
0.3 |
Donald Kjornes |
0.2 |
Heath V Fulkerson |
0.1 |
(Source: NY Times, as of February 7, 9:00 a.m.)
First Haley, then Trump: Why the Republicans are holding two primaries in Nevada
But how did the oddity come about that Trump and Haley are both running in the Republican primaries in Nevada - but are on different ballot papers and are standing for election on two different days?
How could that even be?
And what does this mean for the Republican presidential nomination in view of the US election in November?
Nikki Haley (right) has preferred touring South Carolina for some time now.
© Brandon Bell/afp
The background to the confusion is a dispute between the Republican Party and the state.
While a new law in Nevada requires a state primary, Republicans insist on continuing to vote by caucus, as has been the case since the 1980s.
In July 2023, Judge James Russell ruled that Republicans must offer both types.
In Nevada there will be a primary on February 6th and a caucus on February 8th.
In his ruling, Judge Russell also stated that the Republicans in Nevada are free to decide how they want to distribute the delegate votes.
The party didn't think twice and announced early on that these delegate votes would only be awarded at the caucus.
In addition, the Republicans determined that it would not be possible to take part in both primaries.
Donald Trump has no competition in the Nevada caucus
Donald Trump is already almost certain of the 26 delegate votes from Nevada.
In any case, he has no fear of competition in the caucus.
The Republicans have since removed the names of Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum, which were originally on the ballot.
Trump's only opponent is the Texas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley.
So the ballot at the February 8 caucus looks like this:
Ryan Binkley
Donald Trump
Why isn't Haley participating in the Nevada caucus in the US Republican primary?
What is astonishing is that Nikki Haley is not running in the caucus in Nevada - even though she has long known that this is the only result that counts for the Republicans.
A Haley voter thinks it's a set-up.
Las Vegas-based Republican Thomas Kramer told the
Las Vegas Review-Journal
that he felt the primary was rigged: "It feels like the people who complained about an election being stolen are an election Steal." Another Haley voter also expressed frustration to the paper: "I can't vote for my candidate," said Charles Fruit.
“You’re basically disenfranchising me.
And this is happening through my own Republican Party.
I am very dissatisfied."
Surname |
Nikki Haley, born Randhawa |
|---|---|
birth date |
January 20, 1972 |
Place of birth |
Bamberg, South Carolina, USA |
Political party |
republican |
Current office |
Candidate for the 2024 US presidential election |
Studies |
Accounting from Clemson University, South Carolina |
Haley has never publicly commented on why she is not participating in the caucus.
Experts assume that given the format of such an election meeting, it has no chance of success anyway.
Republicans in Nevada chose this “to essentially create a situation where Trump has no competition,” pollster Mike Noble told
Axios
.
And Daniel Lee told the portal that a caucus is always beneficial for someone with a strong base.
The enthusiastic voters are there, exactly “the kind of people that Trump has,” said the professor of political science at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
A caucus favors Trump in the US Republican primaries
In fact, a caucus is quite time-consuming.
In a primary, the vote can be cast at any time during the polling station's opening hours; postal voting is also possible over several days.
In contrast, a caucus is scheduled at a precisely defined time.
In Nevada this occurs between 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. local time.
During these two and a half hours, discussions take place at the various meeting locations before the actual election begins.
It seems that ardent Trump fans are much more willing to set aside two and a half hours on a weekday evening.
(cs)