Trump wins Nevada Republican caucuses, CNN projects

CNN
 — 

Donald Trump won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses Thursday, CNN projects, a victory that was effectively guaranteed when his lone remaining well-known rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, chose not to compete for the state’s delegates.

The former president has now won all three Republican contests so far — adding the Silver State to Iowa and New Hampshire — as he moves closer to the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.

Thursday’s caucuses in Nevada came two days after the state held primaries — with President Joe Biden dominating the Democratic contest and “none of these candidates” finishing first for Republicans, ahead of Haley.

The Nevada Republican Party, which is led by Trump allies, opted not to award its delegates through a party-run primary — and barred candidates participating in the primary from caucus ballots. That meant Trump faced only little-known Dallas pastor Ryan Binkley on Thursday.

Trump, as he prepared to travel to Nevada to deliver celebratory remarks Thursday, once again sought to nudge Haley out of the race.

“I think she hurts herself, but I think she hurts the party, and in a way hurts the country,” Trump said outside of his Mar-A-Lago home on Thursday.

Trump’s political fate faced judgment beyond the ballot box Thursday. Earlier in the day, the US Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the former president’s actions around the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol make him ineligible for office.

Nevada Republicans aren’t the only ones caucusing Thursday. Trump will win the Republican caucuses in the US Virgin Islands, defeating Haley for the territory’s four delegates, CNN projects.

Haley faced an embarrassing outcome Tuesday in Nevada when she finished second to “none of these candidates” in the nonbinding primary — an outcome that likely reflected many GOP voters’ preference for Trump in a state that gives them the option to express their dissatisfaction with all candidates on the ballot.

While no delegates were on the line, the primary represented a setback for Haley as she seeks to prove to Republican donors and voters that she remains a viable contender ahead of her next major head-to-head contest with Trump in the February 24 South Carolina primary.

“We always knew Nevada was a scam,” Haley said in a Fox Business interview Wednesday. “Trump had it rigged from the very beginning. … We didn’t spend a day or a dollar there. We weren’t even worried about it.”

Trump, meanwhile, had urged his supporters in the Silver State to skip the primary and vote in the caucuses.

“In your state, you have both a primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing,” he told attendees at a recent Las Vegas rally.

The dueling contests are the result of a 2021 state law that scrapped Nevada’s presidential caucuses in favor of government-run primaries. Advocates said the move would be less cumbersome to run and less confusing for voters.

However, the Nevada Republican Party — which is led by Trump loyalists — opted to hold caucuses this year anyway and award the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention based on those results. It also warned candidates who participated in the primary that they would not be eligible for the caucuses or to receive any delegates.

Still, some Republican presidential contenders, including Haley, filed to run in the primary. Trump is now the last remaining major contender in Thursday’s caucuses, which effectively guarantees his victory. (He faces only token opposition on Thursday’s ballot from little-known Texas pastor Ryan Binkley.)

Democrats awarded their 2024 presidential delegates from Nevada based on the results of Tuesday’s first-in-the-West primary, which President Joe Biden won in dominating fashion — adding to his win in South Carolina as he moves toward securing his party’s nomination for a second term.

The lack of competitive primaries in Nevada means major presidential contenders paid little attention to the Silver State. That’s likely to change in the fall, when Nevada —a state Biden narrowly won in 2020 but where Republicans flipped the governor’s office in 2022 — will be a presidential and Senate battleground.

CNN’s David Wright, Ethan Cohen and Terence Burlij contributed to this report.