Republican Nevada Primary: ‘None of These Candidates’ Beats Nikki Haley

Following votes marked “none of these candidates” by Donald Trump fans, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was humiliatingly defeated in Tuesday’s Nevada primary, according per Edison Research.

The only significant Republican contender vying for the party’s Nevada primary on Tuesday was Haley, the front-runner Trump’s final adversary for the nomination. There was no ballot for Trump. Joe Biden, the president of the United States, won the Democratic presidential primary in Nevada with ease after winning his party’s first nominating vote on Saturday in South Carolina.

Biden received 90% of the vote when more than 70% of the ballots were tabulated. As the sitting president, Biden is unlikely to encounter much resistance from members of his own party if he decides to run for reelection in November against Trump in the general election. Following victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, former President Trump is getting closer to securing the nomination. On Thursday, he will win all of Nevada’s delegates in a separate caucus vote. The primary on Tuesday, which had little significance in the Republican race for presidential nomination, saw no participation from Trump. Haley is not running in the caucus on Thursday.

In Tuesday’s primary, Republican voters have the option to mark their votes “none of these candidates.” Haley’s refusal to withdraw from the Republican nomination campaign has incensed Trump. Haley had 32% of the vote after more than two-thirds of the Republican votes had been tabulated. According to Edison Research, “none of these candidates” had received above 61% of the vote and was the winner.

With only Trump on the ballot, he is virtually surely assured victory and all 26 delegates from the state to the Republican National Convention in July, when the party officially nominates its candidate. The alternative Republican caucus is being handled by the Trump-friendly state party on Thursday. On Tuesday, there is the Republican primary, and on Thursday, there is the Republican caucus. Republican governor of Nevada and Trump backer Joe Lombardo had said that he would vote “none of these candidates” on Tuesday and support Trump in the caucuses on Thursday.

The state Republican Party, which is led by Trump followers, and a 2021 state law requiring the holding of a primary are at odds, leading to the rival Republican ballots. State political parties, not the government, oversee the presidential nomination processes, and the Trump-friendly Nevada Republican Party made the decision to hold a caucus on February 8. Trump pushed people to skip Tuesday’s primary and just participate in Thursday’s caucus during a visit to Nevada last week.

Haley has pledged to continue in the Republican primary and even make a last push in her home state of South Carolina on February 24, but there isn’t a certain route to the nomination. Opinion polls in South Carolina show that she is well behind Trump. On Sunday and Monday, Biden was in Nevada on campaign duty. “Donald Trump is trying to divide us, not unite us; drag us back to the past, not lead us to the future,” he said in a statement after his triumph.

Biden was included on the ballot among several lesser-known Democratic opponents, including self-help author Marianne Williamson. Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota will not be on the ballot since he missed the filing deadline. Although Nevada’s results on Tuesday will not have much of an influence on the nomination contests, the state will be a highly fought battlefield because of its population, which may swing significantly to either party and affect the outcome of the presidential election in November.

In Nevada in 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 2.4 percentage points. According to opinion surveys, Biden and Trump’s rematch in the state is probably going to be tight. According to the U.S. Census, almost 30% of Nevadans identify as Latino or Hispanic, and Republicans are starting to gain traction with these voters throughout the country.

There are 768,000 registered “non-partisan” voters in Nevada, more than those registered as Democrats or Republicans, according to the most recent state statistics. This means that the state has a large number of potential swing votes.