On August 14, 2023, Republicans in
Nevada announced that they would boycott and ignore the non-binding, state-organized primary following a controversy over the selection of a primary process over the traditional caucus format in the state's presidential preference contests. The state-run primary was held on February 6, while the
Nevada Republican Party held its own
caucus on February 8.
Nikki Haley lost the popular vote in the non-binding Nevada primary to
None of These Candidates.[5] Although None of These Candidates received more votes, Haley was the official winner of the primary.[1] Trump won the party-organized caucus.
Background
Controversy
The Democratic-controlled
Nevada Legislature, supported by former senator
Harry Reid, moved to establish a presidential primary in 2021 for the Republican and Democratic parties, following the "havoc" of the
2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses.[6] Previously, party-organized caucuses were used to determine delegates in presidential elections. In May 2023, the Republican Party sued the state of Nevada, because they preferred to keep using the caucuses to determine their delegate allocation.[7][8]
The Republican primary required more than one Republican candidate to file by October 16, 2023. Nevada Republicans have said that they will instead hold a party-organized caucus on February 8, 2024. To participate in the caucus, Republican candidates needed to register their candidacy with the Nevada Republican Party in a filing window from September 1, 2023, to October 15, 2023.[7][9]
Additionally, Haley, the only remaining major candidate on the primary ballot by the time of the election, refused to spend funds or campaign in the Nevada primaries due to not being allowed to enter the caucuses.[10] This lead to early speculation "None of the Above" would win the primaries instead.[citation needed]
Procedure
Delegates are proportionally allocated to candidates who receive at least 3.85% of the votes in the caucus on February 8, 2024. Votes in the primary on February 6, 2024, will not be included in determining delegate allocation.
Candidates
The filing deadline for the Nevada primary was on October 16, 2023. The office of the
Secretary of State of Nevada published the list of qualified candidates on October 20.[11] The filing window for the Nevada caucus was between September 1 and October 15. The party published their own list of candidates and did not allow those who filed for the state-run primary to participate.[12]
The state of Nevada, per a law enacted in 1975, will also allow voters in the primary to cast a vote for "
None of these Candidates."[13] Local news outlets in Nevada reported that it was plausible that Nikki Haley could face a competitive race against "None of these candidates" because Nevada voters, including those who wished to support Trump in the caucus but couldn't vote for him in the primary, were allowed to participate in both the primary and the caucus.[2]
In March 2023, it was reported that Trump hosted a range of
Nevada Republican Party officials at
Mar-a-Lago as part of his campaign's "aggressive outreach to state and local party officials in the early primary states."[17]
The two contests have led to some confusion among voters, where they have questioned why Trump is not listed on the primary ballot, with thousands of them calling in to request clarification.[18]
^Despite receiving fewer votes than None of These Candidates, Haley officially won the primary.[1] Under Nevada state law, "only votes cast for the named candidates shall be counted” for the purposes of declaring the winner of an election.[2]
^Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy were originally on the ballot, but have been removed since they all suspended their campaigns.
^Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined.