Nevada’s unprecedented system for selecting the Republican presidential nominee is creating an obstacle for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
For the first time, the Silver State will hold a government-led primary election on February 6 and a caucus two days later, led by the Nevada Republican Party.
Haley is the only major GOP candidate registered for the primary, meaning she will likely win but will not receive delegates.
The confusing process arose from the Nevada Republican Party’s objections to a 2021 state law that made primary elections mandatory. Party officials responded by forcing candidates to choose between registering for primaries and caucuses, and will only award delegates to the winner of the latter contest.
Haley chose to enter the primary in October, along with former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who have since dropped out of the race.
The remaining contenders — former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley — are caucusing, with 26 delegates to the Convention. National Republican in betting.
Nikki Haley will be the only major GOP candidate running in the Nevada primary. AP
Haley’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request from The Post for comment on her strategy.
How the Nevada dual race came about
Since the 1984 presidential election cycle, Nevada Republicans and Democrats (with the exception of 1996, on the Republican side) have held Iowa-style caucuses, in which voters gather at designated locations and elect delegates to elections. county conventions. Those delegates then elect delegates to the state conventions to determine who receives Nevada delegates to the party’s national convention.
After the 2020 election, Nevada’s Democratic-controlled government decided to move to holding primaries if more than one candidate registered to vote, despite objections from the state Republican Party, which has argued that caucuses are a more transparent process.
Nevada Republicans sued over the primary requirement, and courts allowed the state party to restrict the allocation of delegates to the caucus.
The Nevada Republican Party’s stance has drawn the ire of the party’s anti-Trump factions, who point out that the former president has strong relationships with Republican officials across the state and is highly favored among potential caucusgoers.
Trump’s critics have accused the Nevada Republican Party of rigging the election in his favor because caucusgoers are more likely to vote for him. REUTERS
The 2024 elections in Nevada will result in “great confusion” for voters and inspire more anger than during the usual caucus process, Las Vegas-based Republican political strategist Zachary Moyle told The Post.
“This year, voters are going to think that the primaries are like any other election,” he predicted. “They’re going to be very confused when they go to the primary and want to vote for someone other than Nikki Haley, and they’re not there.”
Haley’s strategy
Nevada is third on the Republican nominating calendar behind Iowa and New Hampshire, where Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has been rising in the polls but remains a distant second at best. behind Trump. It also comes two and a half weeks before the primary in South Carolina, Haley’s home state that her campaign has said she hopes to win, but where Trump again has a sizable lead in the polls.
Competing in the Nevada primary might give Haley a symbolic victory and generate headlines, but it wouldn’t give her any real playing power at the Republican convention and could give her rivals a chance to win delegates.
Opting for the primary also allows Haley to waive the mandatory $55,000 price tag to compete in the caucus.
“Nikki Haley can get a lot of press with this and they will be able to say they won the presidential preference primary,” Moyle said. “Maybe that will help with donors. “It could help with finances, it could help with notoriety.”
South Carolina-based Republican strategist Dave Wilson suggested that Haley’s strategy to “win” the Nevada primary is a way to show Palmetto State voters that she has a chance against Trump.
“Nikki Haley winning anything in Nevada will be extremely important for her if she wants to continue to gain momentum and gain traction. She will deflect media attention and probably say, ‘The voters have spoken,’” she said.
“That gives her a starting point to go back to South Carolina, to her home territory and to a similar primary system,” Wilson added, noting that Haley is probably only sacrificing a few delegates, which Nevada awards based on vote share. of the caucus and not through a winner-take-all system.
Ron DeSantis has accused Nikki Haley of not playing to win since she cannot receive delegates. REUTERS
How other candidates are handling Nevada
Despite ranking early in the voting cycle, Nevada has received barely any attention from any of the candidates, who have focused their time and energy on Iowa and New Hampshire.
Trump, 77, held a “caucus engagement” rally in Reno on Sunday and earlier hosted Nevada Republican Party officials at Mar-a-Lago.
DeSantis, 45, accused the Nevada Republican Party of tilting the system in Trump’s favor but defended his decision to caucus.
“The state party changed it to a caucus. The state party people are basically trying to rig it for Trump. And then the delegates will end up in the caucus,” DeSantis told Iowa reporters on Wednesday, adding that Haley’s strategy “isn’t really to win” because she herself dropped out of the delegate race.
Never Back Down, the super PAC backing DeSantis, ended its door-knocking campaign in Nevada in August to focus on Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Haley held a town hall in Nevada in March and attended the Republican Jewish Coalition summit in Las Vegas in late October, along with the other major candidates, but has primarily focused on the other top three states.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn