Ms. Haley did not attend the Nevada caucuses, making it almost certain that Trump will win all of the state's delegates to the Republican convention.
Former President Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary on January 23 against former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Along with his previous victory in Iowa, Mr. Trump is showing an overwhelming position in the Republican race.
In his victory speech in New Hampshire that evening, Mr. Trump mocked Ms. Haley and mentioned that she would not be awarded any delegates from Nevada to the Republican National Convention. "I heard Nikki say 'South Carolina next,' but she forgot about Nevada. And I'm reporting that we just won Nevada, 100%," Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump was confident of an absolute victory in Nevada even before the primary took place because of the state's unusual voting rules. Other states in the US usually choose between caucuses and primaries to choose Republican and Democratic candidates, but Nevada holds both.
Former President Donald Trump speaks in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 23. Photo: AP
Caucuses are a different and more complicated process than voting. The primary is run by state officials and is conducted in person or by mail, while caucuses are organized by each party's executive committee.
The caucus requires voters to attend in person, make their choices public, listen to a candidate’s representative speak, and then cast their ballots. The results from each polling place are sent to the party committee and announced after the counting process is complete.
For decades, both the Democratic and Republican parties in Nevada have held caucuses on February 8 in election years. However, the 2020 Democratic caucus was marred by errors in the submission of results, forcing then-candidates Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders to request recounts.
The incident prompted the Nevada legislature, with a Democratic majority, to pass a bill in 2021 to eliminate the caucus format and move the primary to February 6.
However, the National Republican Committee (NRP) opposed the change, saying that voting by mail is "not secure". Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, a Republican, proposed tightening voter identification laws and imposing some restrictions on voting by mail, but the state legislature rejected it.
Under the law, Nevada’s Democrats and Republicans will hold their primary elections together on February 6. But the NRP has decided to hold a caucus on February 8 and will only recognize the caucus results to allocate the state’s 26 delegates to the Republican National Convention.
Republican voters can vote in the primary, but the results are largely symbolic. The NRP also said that candidates who participate in the primary will not appear on the caucus ballot.
In this year's election, Ms. Haley, Senator Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence and several other Republican candidates chose to participate in the primary, meaning they gave up competing for delegates in Nevada.
Mr. Trump, along with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Pastor Binkley chose the caucus format in Nevada.
This means that Mr. Trump "won without a fight", because DeSantis and other prominent candidates have announced their withdrawal and his only competitor in the caucus is Binkley, a not-so-famous candidate.
Scott said primaries help candidates gain more visibility, and denied reports that he was hesitant to confront Trump in the caucuses. Haley did not comment on her decision to forgo the caucuses.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks in North Charleston, South Carolina on January 24. Photo: AP
Jim DeGraffenreid, a member of the NRP committee, said they had contacted most of the candidates before the caucus filing deadline and he was "very surprised" by Ms Haley's choice.
“It remains to be seen how voters will respond,” he continued. “Anyone who knows the process knows that winning delegates is the goal of every primary. So I find it puzzling that some candidates are choosing a format that doesn’t yield delegates.”
Zachary Guymon, a strategist for the NRP, said Ms. Haley chose to vote in the primary because she knew she could not beat Mr. Trump in Nevada in the caucus.
“They think Trump will dominate the caucuses and it’s better to concede Nevada than to be embarrassed,” said Joshua Putnam, a political scientist at FrontloadingHQ. The upside is that the candidate who wins the primary can claim to have received more votes than the caucus winner.
Nevada's complex primary rules have left some voters in the state confused and angry. Some were surprised that Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis were not on the primary mail-in ballot, arguing that it was "voter fraud."
A mail-in primary ballot in Nevada does not have Trump's name on it. Photo: X@JoAnneR55863728
NRP President Michael McDonald admitted it was "regrettable" that the secret meeting information was not mentioned on millions of mail-in ballots sent to voters, prompting a flood of calls and letters from the government office.
McDonald also denied the NRP's claim that it held a closed-door meeting to give Trump an advantage. He said the claim was made by DeSantis's camp and promoted by Haley's team. "It's possible that Haley's team regrets the decision to go with the primary and is looking for excuses to justify that strategic mistake," he said.
Nhu Tam (According to CBS News, Washington Examiner )
Source link
Comment (0)