By Julia Johnson. Media: Washingtonexaminer
LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump handily won the Nevada Republican Party’s presidential caucuses Thursday, marking his fourth win of the GOP primary cycle over former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
With about a third of the results tallied, Trump had 99% of the vote to virtually unknown candidate Ryan Binkley’s 1% in a landslide victory. The Associated Press called the race for Trump at 11:05 p.m. Eastern time, shortly after the first results came in from the Silver State, which has 26 delegates at stake.
Trump and Binkley were the only candidates voters could choose from during the caucuses as Haley declined to participate in the party-run contest, complaining it was “rigged” for Trump.
Instead, her name was on the state-run primary ballot on Tuesday, when she suffered a historic loss to “none of these candidates.” It was the first time a protest option won a presidential primary since state law required it on primary ballots in 1975.
Trump’s Nevada win comes as continues his steady march toward the GOP nomination, previously winning in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which also held caucuses on Thursday.
Despite the former president’s landslide victory, the caucuses were marred with difficulties. At one Las Vegas caucus site at James Cashman Middle School, Republican voters faced trouble getting to the correct entrance and parking. One man remarked outside the site, “Democrats are doing everything they can to screw this thing up.”
But once those caucusgoers found the location successfully and parked their vehicles, they all signaled their intent to support Trump.
Joe McMahon said he’s caucusing for the former president. “I was for somebody else [in 2016], but he’s done a spectacular job while he was four years in office,” he said of Trump.
McMahon was so satisfied with Trump that he didn’t even consider other Republicans during the primary season.
“We have been supporting him since 2016,” John Goetz said of himself and his wife, Carol. John donned a “Trump” hat for the event.
“I think we were all thinking about other people along the way,” Carol Goetz said of the other Republican candidates. “They wanted to consider other ones and then Trump came out on top.”
“We like Ron DeSantis as a governor, but we like Trump as the president,” John Goetz said of the Florida Republican’s unsuccessful presidential bid.
However, Cathy and Roland Peck said “not at all” when asked if they had considered other Republican contenders. The two have also supported Trump since 2016.
“I think he did a great job the last time he was president. So you know, I want more of that for our country. We want the country back,” Roland Peck said.
Former 2024 hopefuls who had filed for the caucuses, such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and former biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have since suspended their 2024 campaigns.
The Nevada caucuses faced scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans for being “rigged” in Trump’s favor and confusing voters.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald explained the state party opted for a GOP-run caucus because the state primary cannot be trusted with voter ID requirements. “If we had voter ID, there wouldn’t be a need for a caucus,” he said.
Many voters this week expressed confusion when speaking to the Washington Examiner about their voting plans. However, nearly all Republicans interviewed planned to participate in both the primary on Tuesday and the caucuses on Thursday.
Haley, who is the only other Republican candidate polling in double digits nationally, was not on the caucus ballot. She chose to file for the primary, which did not award delegates. However, she ended up losing to “none of these candidates” as Trump-supporting Republicans sought to block her from a symbolic primary win.
Before both nominating contests in Nevada, Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said, “We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada.”
She further slammed the state’s Republican Party as “a Trump entity” and accused the caucuses of being “rigged for Trump.”
“We aren’t going to pay $55,000” for such a contest, Ankney explained.
“Nevada is not and has never been our focus. I’m truly not sure what the Trump team is up to out there, but they seem pretty spun up about it,” she added.
After four wins in a row for Trump, the GOP contest next heads to South Carolina, where Haley wants to stage a comeback in her home state on Feb. 24.