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LAS VEGAS – Former President Donald Trump wasn’t on the poll in Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary in the early voting state of Nevada.
But his absence wasn’t sufficient to assist safe a victory for his final remaining main rival for the 2024 GOP nomination – Nikki Haley.
Voters casting ballots in the state-run Republican nominating contest could not write in Trump’s identify, but they may vote for a “none of these candidates” choice.
And the Associated Press projected that the “none of these candidates” choice would defeat Haley in a primary the place no delegates to this summer time’s Republican conference had been at stake. Trump supporters Fox News spoke with at polling stations mentioned they had been casting a poll for “none of the above.”
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump motions earlier than talking at a marketing campaign occasion Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) (AP Photo/John Loche)
While her identify was on the poll, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration ignored the Nevada primary.
Haley did not marketing campaign in Nevada forward of the primary and hasn’t been in the state since talking in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual management convention.
“In terms of Nevada, we have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada,” Haley marketing campaign supervisor Betsy Ankney advised reporters on Monday. “So Nevada is not and has never been our focus.”
While Trump, the commanding front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, wasn’t on the primary poll, his identify can be listed on Thursday in a presidential caucus being run by the Nevada GOP.
The confusion over having two competing contests dates to 2021, when Democrats, who at the time managed each Nevada’s governor’s workplace and the legislature, handed a legislation altering the presidential nominating contest from long-held caucuses to a state-run primary.
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The Nevada GOP objected, but final yr their authorized bid to cease the primary from going ahead was rejected. In a twist, the decide in the case allowed the state Republicans to carry their very own caucuses, the place all 26 delegates can be up for grabs.
The state GOP dominated that candidates who put their identify on the state-run primary poll couldn’t participate in the caucuses.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley waves to a crowd throughout a marketing campaign occasion at New Realm Brewing Co., Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford) (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Haley and a few of the different now-departed Republican presidential candidates seen the Nevada GOP as too loyal to Trump and determined to skip a caucus they believed was tipped in favor of the former president.
Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and each of the state’s members of the Republican National Committee are supporting Trump.
“We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity that, you know, to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump,” Ankney argued.
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While the GOP presidential candidates had to decide on both the caucus or primary poll, registered Republicans in Nevada can vote in each contests.
And Trump’s marketing campaign has been working to get the message out to supporters in Nevada that in the event that they need to vote for the former president, they should present up at the caucuses.
“Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote,” Trump mentioned at a rally in Las Vegas late final month. “So in your state, you have both the primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.”
A voting signal exterior a polling station in Las Vegas on Feb. 6, 2024, as Nevada holds its presidential primary (Fox News – Monica Oroz )
Trump is anticipated again in Las Vegas on Thursday, for a caucus celebration.
This week’s contests are simply an appetizer for Nevada, which as a key basic election battleground state will see loads of marketing campaign site visitors this summer time and autumn.
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