Trump wins the Republican caucuses in Nevada almost unopposed

(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Trump wins the Republican caucuses in Nevada almost unopposed

Election 2024

MICHELLE L. PRICE, JONATHAN J. COOPER and GABE STERN

February 8, 2024

Former President Trump won the Republican presidential caucuses in Nevada on Thursday, a contest in which he participated as the only major candidate.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley skipped the caucuses, the only contest in Nevada that counts toward the Republican nomination. Citing what she perceived as an unfair process in Trump’s favor, Haley instead entered Nevada’s symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday, when she finished behind the “none of these candidates” option that Trump supporters urged had to select.

Trump’s victory in Nevada gives him all 26 of the state’s delegates. He needs 1,215 delegates to formally win the parties’ nomination and could reach that number in March.

After Trump established himself as the clear frontrunner with victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, the Nevada caucuses were seen as lopsided in his favor due to the intense grassroots support that requires candidates to coalesce around a state in order to win. Nevada’s state party last year barred candidates from participating in both the primaries and caucuses and also limited the role of super PACs like the groups that keyed Florida’s governorship. Ron DeSanti’s campaign before he quit.

Caucuses typically require voters to show up for an in-person meeting at a certain date and time, while elections offer more flexibility to participate, with polls open for most of Election Day, along with mail-in, absentee or early voting. Nevada Republicans said they wanted to implement certain rules, such as requiring participants to show government-issued identification.

Trump’s supporters waited in long lines on Thursday. At a caucus location at a Reno-area elementary school, a line of nearly a thousand people stretched around the corner and down the street twenty minutes after the caucus opened.

Voters in line, some of whom wore Trump hats and shirts, said they were supporting the former president in a contest that would give him a third straight victory in the Republican presidential race.

I think it’s about supporting Trump and giving him the support he needs. And to let people know they support him, Heather Kirkwood, 47, said.

Trump has long been popular among Nevada Republicans, but he also had other advantages among the parties’ key figures. Michael McDonald, chairman of the Nevada GOP Party, and Jim DeGraffenreid, a member of the state’s Republican National Committee, were among six Nevada Republicans charged with misdemeanor charges in connection with their role as fake voters who sent certificates to sent to Congress falsely claiming that Trump won Nevada in 2020.

From Nevada, the Republican battle revolves around the primaries in South Carolina on February 24. Trump remains popular in the deeply conservative state, but Haley, who was twice elected governor of South Carolina, hopes to benefit from a home-state advantage. Trump is eyeing a huge delegate harvest in the Super Tuesday contests on March 5, which would bring him closer to becoming the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.

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