Trump wins Nevada caucuses hands-down, Haley skips race to focus on South Carolina primary

By Darren Lyn and Gizem Nisa Cebi

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - Former President Donald Trump won the Nevada Republican caucuses hands-down on Thursday night with no real competition, as his main opponent, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, skipped the race.

Trump will win most, if not all, of the state's 26 delegates, according to multiple media outlets. He easily beat the only other opponent on Nevada's ballot, a businessman and pastor who self-funded his campaign.

Nevada makes it the third straight state Trump has won on his crusade to clinch the party's nomination with 1,215 delegates. The former president beat Haley in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Haley did not participate in the Nevada caucuses, citing what she considered an unfair process favoring Trump. Because of rules in that state which allow political parties to run their own nominating contests as they see fit, Haley said it did not pay for her to compete there because the system was "rigged."

Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald was indicted in a probe related to Trump's false claims about the 2020 election, she noted.

In the competing Nevada primary held on Tuesday, Haley lost to the "none of these candidates" choice on that ballot by a margin of 63% to 30%.

- Next stop South Carolina

Haley has been focusing on her home state's primary on Feb. 24. Even though most, if not all, polls show the former US ambassador to the UN trailing Trump by a wide margin in South Carolina, Haley has vowed to stay in the Republican presidential race, win, or lose.

A Washington Post and Monmouth University poll released last week showed Haley losing to Trump in South Carolina by a decisive 58% to 32%.

In his Las Vegas speech, Trump accused his likely Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden of a lack of leadership.

He said: “If we win this state, we easily win the election in November. We have to win the election. Go back home, rest and then come back, because we’re going to turn this whole thing around.”

But Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd dismissed Trump's prospects in Nevada, citing his losses in 2016 and 2020. No one knows “how to lose Nevada like Trump,” he said.

“He and his MAGA minions may be able to rig a caucus for him now, but Trump won’t be able to escape becoming a three-time loser in Nevada this November when voters once again reject his MAGA extremism,” he told local media, using Trump’s acronym for Make America Great Again.

As for the competing primary versus caucuses, both held in the same week, state GOP rules barred candidates from competing in both contests, making the primary inconsequential.

Trump advised supporters to prioritize the caucus over the primary, stating that “the primary doesn’t mean anything.”

Despite Biden's narrow 2020 win, Nevada remains a battleground state for the upcoming November elections.​​​​​​​