Even though Donald Trump easily outpaced Nikki Haley in Iowa and New Hampshire and consistently polls well ahead of her, you’d think the former South Carolina Governor would have a chance of coming out on top in Nevada’s state-run presidential preference primary since Trump isn’t on the ballot. But you’d be wrong. Because incredibly, according to Decision Desk HQ, she has lost out to “None of These Candidates” now that approximately 62 percent of the votes have been counted.
But first I have to get to the most obvious question: Why wasn’t Trump on the ballot? Well, to begin with, there were no delegates at stake in this primary and Trump’s name didn’t appear on the ballot because he’ll instead be taking part in Nevada’s GOP-run caucus on Thursday. Where the caucus will award all of the state’s 26 delegates to the winner, who is expected to be ta-da! The former president. Of course.
I can’t help but think Haley must be embarrassed by this turn of events. Haley has argued she would be the better general election candidate to duke it out with Biden, who’ll almost certainly be the Democratic nominee, and I don’t know, maybe that’s true, but her efforts to lure Trump’s supporters away haven’t worked, according to The Hill.
Nevada has recently enacted a state law that requires a presidential preference primary, but the Nevada GOP ignored this and went full steam ahead with its long-standing caucus system anyway. And when Haley decided to take part in the primary, she was barred from participating in the caucus.
While I don’t particularly care for Haley, this doesn’t seem fair to me. Perhaps she wasn’t aware of this but Trump certainly was, and he told supporters “Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote.”
This has understandably caused confusion among Nevada voters, but apparently, while candidates can’t participate in both events, election officials say that registered Republicans can vote in both. Indeed, this story in The Reno Gazette-Journal confirms this.
In an interview with the Nevada Independent, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R) said he planned to cast a ballot in both races, voting for Trump in the caucuses and voting for “none” in the primary.
The “none” option is required by law on the state-run ballots, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.
There’s even one more surprise: While Trump won both Iowa and New Hampshire in January, he’s even polling ahead of Haley in South Carolina, her home state, and the next state up for grabs in the Republican lineup with the GOP primary scheduled for February 24.
It’s anyone’s guess what Haley will do from here on out, but since she’s not even faring well in her own state perhaps she’ll get the message that it’s time to drop out. There will be no tears from me on this. While she’s recently taken a less strident approach to abortion bans, she has previously been strictly against abortion, even to the point of co-sponsoring a bill in 2010 that proposed life begins at fertilization, “with due process and equal protection both applying to embryos, essentially imposing a complete ban on abortion,” according to NBC News, which added “The bill, which died in committee, did not include any exceptions — not for rape, incest, or the life and health of the mother.”
I don’t have to tell you that’s quite awful, do I? Just because she seems to be taking a softer approach to abortion right now doesn’t mean she’ll continue on this path if she is ever elected president. I suspect, just like Trump does on so many issues, Haley is merely saying what she thinks voters want to hear.
Haley also doesn’t have a good record when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. As noted by GLAAD, she did such things as “falsely claimed that transgender girls playing sports contribute to teenage suicide ideation.” This is completely baseless, and the Advocate noted this isn’t the first time Haley has made this unsupported claim that somehow teen girls are being “negatively affected by transgender teen girls’ participation in sports.” Apparently, she asserted this in New Hampshire in the month before.
She has also opposed marriage equality while a South Carolina state representative and during her time as governor.
As much as I detest Trump, I’m not sure if Haley would be the lesser of two evils or not. But that’s beside the point because Trump is clearly going to be the GOP nominee for president. Hopefully, we’ll only be stuck with him until Election Day and not afterward.
This is epic embarrassment, on two levels. That she lost to “none of the above”. In a useless primary that awards no delegates, in a state that ALSO uses a caucus. Christ……this is no way to elect POTUS. What a goddamn farce.
So the GOP is having an illegal caucus. Not surprising since they aren’t a real political party, but are a terrorist organization.
She’s a racist liar just like Trump. They both use makeup and use copious amounts of hairspray. The difference? She wears a skirt, he wears a diaper and she’s able to lift a glass of water with one hand.