In the Nevada GOP primary, Nikki Haley was defeated not by any of these candidates

In the Nevada GOP primary, Nikki Haley was defeated not by any of these candidates

According to NBC News, the majority of people opted to support Haley without selecting a candidate. Trump was taking part in Thursday's caucuses, thus he was not on the ballot.

On Tuesday, Nikki Haley had no significant opposition in Nevada's presidential primary.

NBC News projected that she would still lose.

More voters in Nevada than Haley opted not to vote for "any of these candidates" during the state-run primaries. Voters had the opportunity to reject every candidate on the ballot.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN, delivered a pointed criticism that was supported by some party officials. This was Haley's third straight defeat in a Nevada early state primary.

However, Haley's team said that her length of stay in the race will not be impacted by the outcome.

Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman, stated: "Even Donald Trump is aware that the house always wins while playing penny slots. We spared Trump the hassle of a rigged game. are stronger than they are."

Haley was not on the same ballot as front-runner Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, as she got ready to participate in the party-organized caucuses on Thursday.

Trump said on Truth Social that it was "a bad night for Nikki Haley."

Haley would not have been any closer to the GOP nomination even if she had captured the primary since she would not have been awarded any delegates. The state Republican Party made the decision that delegates may only be awarded to candidates who took part in the caucuses.

With only one contender competing in Thursday's caucuses, Trump is expected to win all one of Nevada's twenty-six delegates.

But if Haley garnered more total votes in the caucuses than Trump did in the primaries, she stood to make some good headlines for little or no additional cost. However, his lack of investment in the state was ultimately discovered. Since May, Haley has only made one trip to the state, and each time she has written it off as insignificant.

According to Haley, the Nevada Republican Party is in the tank for Trump, which is why she made the decision not to run in the caucuses. Leading party figures have been charged with supporting Trump with fictitious votes in the 2020 election. State GOP Chairman Michael McDonald's and Vice Chairman Jim DeGraffenried's smartphones were taken; both provided testimony to a grand jury in the federal probe of Trump's attempt to rig the 2020 election.

During a Monday media call, Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said, "We haven't spent anything or an ounce of energy on Nevada." "Nevada doesn't have to be and has never been our focus. We will not give a Trump entity $55,000 to take part in a process that is rigged for Trump."

Haley placed third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire. Though his team claims he still has a chance to win the nomination, he is far behind Trump in his native state of South Carolina, the next primary state on the schedule. According to Haley's statements, her objective if she were to go on would be to outperform New Hampshire on February 24 in South Carolina, in which she scored 43% of the vote.

Voters were confused by Nevada's two-way nominating processes, and hundreds of them phoned state and local party leaders to inquire as to why Trump was not included on the primary ballots they had gotten in the mail.

Nevada used to be the only state to have caucuses for presidential elections. However, the Democratic-led legislature altered the legislation in 2021 to allow the state to have a primary election with early voting and mail-in voting options. The Nevada GOP, claiming it wants to manage its own competition under its own rules, has insisted on conducting its caucuses apart from the state-run contest. The party determined that only candidates who participated in the caucuses would be eligible to gain delegates, and candidates could not run in both elections.

Haley wasn't the only one who skipped the caucus. Prior to withdrawing from the contest, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and former vice president Mike Pence both submitted applications to compete in the state-run GOP primary. Ron DeSantis, the former governor of Florida, and the super PAC that backed him claimed that the Nevada GOP was biased against Trump; yet, DeSantis chose to participate in the caucuses before withdrawing just before to last month's New Hampshire primary.