2024-02-07 09:03:06
Nikki Haley suffered an embarrassing loss yesterday (Tuesday) in the non-binding primaries of the Republican Party in Nevada where she was the only significant candidate on the ballot.
In an election that Donald Trump chose not to participate in and does not at all affect the delegate count for the party convention, more Republican voters chose the “neither candidate” option on the ballot than voted for Haley. Trump’s biggest supporters in the country encouraged his voters to choose this option on the ballot mailed to each party member, to show support for the former president.
Under the rules of the Nevada Republican Party and due to a dispute with the national headquarters, candidates for the presidency had to choose between participating in the primaries organized by the local party or those organized by the national party. Faced with an almost certain victory of Trump in the primaries organized by the National Party, which win delegates to the convention, Haley chose to participate in the alternative in the hope of winning a symbolic victory. But the results last night were another sign of the absolute loyalty of Trump’s supporters in the party and the almost certain fate of those who dare to run against him.
Haley has hinted several times that she intends to continue her effort to defeat Trump despite the big losses she has suffered so far and the polls predicting that this streak will continue. Many experts say her window to gain an advantage over Trump or at least slow his momentum has already closed when she lost more than 10 percent in Hampshire, where she had the best chance of winning. Haley is losing to Trump by 26 percent in the polls of her home state, South Carolina, which will go to the polls in about two weeks.
The Nevada Republican Party has very close ties to Donald Trump. Last year, its leaders were invited to Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s club in Florida, where they discussed the 2024 elections and domestic politics in the country, according to sources present there. The meeting took place while Trump’s people were leading an aggressive effort to change the state’s primary laws.
Many Republican leaders in Nevada also echoed Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. Late last year, a Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans who claimed in 2020 to be delegates to the Electoral College and submitted credentials to Congress that falsely claimed Trump had won their state’s election. Although according to the official count Biden won there.
Many Republican contenders chose not to spend campaign money on the Nevada primary because they see the local branch of the party there as an arm of the Trump campaign. Hayley didn’t invest there either.
“We have not wasted a cent or an ounce of energy in Nevada. We will not run into a process rigged to benefit Trump,” Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankeny, told reporters earlier this week. “We never focused on Nevada.”
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