Donald Trump is leading in the GOP primaries. He has won the first two states. This week, Nevada held a state-led primary. However, the state’s Republican Party does not award delegates based on these results.
Instead, it will hold a caucus later this week to decide its delegates. Because of this, Donald Trump didn’t bother to put his name on the state’s ballot.
Nikki Haley did, although she will not be competing in the caucuses and will not win any delegates from Nevada. But, even though she was running against nobody in the state’s primaries, she failed to get the most votes. This “candidate” ended up beating her.
Nikki Haley was swamped in Nevada’s symbolic Republican presidential primary as GOP voters resoundingly picked the “none of these candidates” option on the ballot in a repudiation of the former U.N. ambassador who is the last remaining major rival to front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump didn’t compete in Tuesday’s primary, which doesn’t award any delegates needed to win the GOP nomination. The former president is instead focused on caucuses that will be held Thursday and will help him move closer to becoming the Republican standard-bearer.
That leaves the results Tuesday as technically meaningless in the Republican race. But they still amount to an embarrassment for Haley, who has sought to position herself as a candidate who can genuinely compete against Trump. Instead, she became the first presidential candidate from either party to lose a race to “none of these candidates” since that option was introduced in Nevada in 1975. [Source: AP News]
In what can only be seen as a humiliating outcome, Nikki Haley lost the symbolic Nevada state primaries. But she did not lose to a candidate but an entry named “none of these candidates.”
The state allows voters to select nobody as an option, it seems. And more Republicans in Nevada voted for that, than Nikki Haley. She is the first presidential candidate from either party to lose a race to “nobody.” In that way, she’s made history. But not in a good way.
Later this week, the state’s GOP will hold its caucuses, which will award delegates. Donald Trump will be competing in that contest, but Haley will not. It is unknown why Haley refused to participate in the Nevada caucuses, but bothered to put her name on the meaningless state primary ballots.
Critics will no doubt accuse the candidate of mismanagement and poor planning. Haley has tried to position herself as the only real alternative to Donald Trump. Yet, she could not properly file to run in Nevada. That does not build confidence in the voters who want to see her running in November.
Trump currently holds a strong polling lead over Haley in the rest of the primary states. That includes South Carolina, where Haley once served as governor. Trump’s lead has knocked out once viable candidates like Ron DeSantis, who dropped out after Iowa.\
Author: Max Davis
