"None Of These Candidates" Has a Big Night in Nevada

Topline Takeaways

• Disagreements among Nevada Republicans led to the party holding an unsanctioned presidential primary on Feb 6 and an official state caucus a bit later on Feb 8. Donald Trump chose not to run in the primary and Haley was prevented from participating in the caucus due to her presence in the primary.
• Infighting amongst Republicans made Nevada largely inconsequential in the 2024 nomination process. No GOP presidential candidates seriously campaigned in the state in the weeks ahead of the primary and caucus.
• Nikki Haley lost to the "None of These Candidates" ballot option in the Republican primary while challenger Marianne Williamson lost to the same option on the Democratic side.

A Primary and A Caucus?

The lead-up to the 2024 Nevada presidential nominating contests has been an unmitigated disaster for the state-level Republican party. Here's a brief recap of how Nevada Republicans were forced to hold both a primary and a caucus:

A group of Nevada Republicans, spooked by far-right 'election-integrity' fanatics, successfully fought keep the party's caucus system after a 2021 bill was passed requiring the state to hold presidential primaries. This safeguarding of caucuses was largely based on unfounded assertions that a caucus would be more secure, as the format required voters to show up in-person rather than relying on Nevada's extensive mail ballot system. (Currently, ahead of every major Nevada election, all registered voters receive a ballot in the mail and are not required to vote in person.) A problem still arose for the Nevada GOP: the state still legally requires Nevada Republicans to hold a primary, not a caucus. To navigate this legal requirement, the state party revised its internal rules: delegate allocation will be based on caucus results (not the state-mandated primary) and candidates will only be eligible if they forgo participating in the primary. This produced their desired outcome: a meaningless primary with almost no real candidates and a private caucus where the state party can assert more control.

Nevadans Moved by "None of these Candidates"

All of this background is incredibly important for understanding Nikki Haley's apparent 'faceplant' in the Nevada primary. Donald Trump opted out of the primary while Haley opted out of the caucus. Despite being only remaining major candidate on the ballot in the primary, Haley's defiance was muted as she largely avoided campaigning in the state.

“We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada."
-Betsy Ankney, Nikki Haley's presidential campaign manager

Since the state-mandated primary was largely inconsequential, Haley supporters failed to show up. Instead, they were outnumbered by Trump supporters showing solidarity by voting for "None of These Candidates" due to the former president's absence on the primary ballot. The loss was a further rebuke of Haley's campaign as calls for her to step aside increase by the day. Meanwhile, Trump sailed to an easy win in the party-sanctioned caucus held on Feb 8.

Turnout Troubles

As seen in other early nominating states, low turnout continues to be an issue for both parties as voters continue to voice their displeasure with both parties' frontrunners. While Biden faces no serious challengers at this point in the primary, he has repeatedly struggled to turnout voters in large numbers to demonstrate that elusive 'enthusiasm' his campaign is searching for. Only 18% of Nevada voters participated in either of the party contests; incredibly low turnout in a state where voters have ballots mailed directly to them.

Leftover Links

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More Nevada Republicans chose to cast ballots in the state-run presidential preference primary than participate in the party-run caucus, according to reported turnout numbers. And on the other side of the aisle, Democrats saw record levels of participation in their uncompetitive primary compared to their caucuses from previous, more competitive election cycles. As the dust […]

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