The Nevada primary happens today but few will be watching. Donald Trump’s name will not be on the ballot and no delegates will be awarded on the Republican side for the eventual winner announced later tonight.
Instead, Nevada Republicans will participate in a caucus on Thursday, the only voting event where delegates will be awarded.
How did this scenario come to be? It started a couple of years ago when the Nevada GOP decided to buck the state and stay with a caucus rather than adopt a traditional primary format, according to USAToday:
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature approved a change to make way for a presidential primary. It was intended to be a simpler way to pick the preferred presidential candidates for the two major parties.
However, the Nevada Republican Party balked at the new format and went in another direction. Instead of sending delegates to the GOP National Convention based on primary results, the party will consider only results from its Feb. 8 caucus, which it will host and pay for itself.
The party says the caucus embodies the election reforms it seeks, such as the use of voter ID, a single election day with no early voting, paper ballots and less influence from super PACs.
As such, rules were established on the GOP side that anyone participating in the primary (ahem, Nikki Haley) is not eligible to receive delegates in the caucus.
The eventual “results” announced tonight where Haley wins the primary overwhelmingly is because no one else is on the ballot.
On the other hand, Haley, by participating in the primary, will not be eligible to participate in the caucus on Thursday where Donald Trump will walk away with all the state’s delegates.
Democrats are holding a primary today as well which is expected to end with Joe Biden winning handily. Again, another non-competitive beauty contest.
While Haley and Biden aren’t the only options on their respective ballots, the rest have either dropped out or are no-name candidates:
On the Republican side, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is on the ballot, along with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former Vice President Mike Pence, both of whom have dropped out of the race. John Castro, Heath Fulkerson, Hirsh Singh and Donald Kjornes round out the Republican ballot.
If you’re registered as a Democrat in Nevada, your ballot will include President Joe Biden, challenger Marianne Williamson and less-well-known candidates Armando Perez-Serrato, Brent Foutz, Stephen Lyons, Jason Palmer, Donald Picard, Stephen Leon, John Haywood, Gabriel Cornejo, Frank Lozada, Superpayaseria Crystalroc and Mark Prascak.
The moral of the story is that when Nikki Haley appears on camera tonight declaring a “historic” and “overwhelming” victory in the Nevada primary, it’s akin to taking credit for another loss. It’s meaningless. She’s running unopposed in the primary today and will accumulate zero delegates in the process.
Looking ahead on the primary calendar, there are a couple more contests this week:
- Thursday, Feb. 8: Nevada GOP Caucus, U.S. Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
Follow the rest of the primary schedule here as we head toward South Carolina later this month and then Super Tuesday on March 5.
