It has been noted that the former UN ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is sounding off ahead of the Nevada GOP primary on Tuesday and claimed that the contest is “rigged” on behalf of her main challenger and Republican presidential leader, Donald Trump.
Haley decided to skip out on the race weeks ago choosing instead to focus campaign resources elsewhere.
“In terms of Nevada, we have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada. We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity that you know to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump,” Betsy Ankeny, Haley’s campaign manager, said during a call with reporters on Monday, the Washington Examiner reported. “Nevada is not and has never been our focus.”
The Nevada Republican Party’s unwavering loyalty to Trump has resulted in other Republican candidates nearly abandoning Nevada.
“We’re not sure what the Trump team is up to out there, but the base seemed pretty spun up about it, but we are focused on South Carolina,” Ankeny added, noting that Haley is laser-focused on winning her home state of South Carolina.
The situation in Nevada is in many ways unique because there are essentially going to be two GOP primaries, the first of which — on Tuesday — Haley is likely to win. But it won’t matter in the long run.
“For Republican voters in Nevada, Tuesday’s state-run Republican ballot only has [Haley] as a major candidate. She is therefore all but guaranteed to win, but it’s largely meaningless,” Reuters explained.
“That’s because only candidates participating in a separate Republican caucus on Thursday can compete for the state’s 26 delegates to the Republican National Convention in July when the party formally nominates its candidate,” the outlet continued. The Trump-friendly state party is running the competing caucus, and since only Trump is on the ballot, he is almost certainly going to win on Thursday and win all of the state’s delegates.
Voters can participate in both primaries. Some reports have said that pro-Trump voters may show up on Tuesday and vote “none of the above,” which would be seen as a protest vote against Haley.
