Trump s NV Sweep Clarifies GOP Race, But Election Is Murkier Than Ever | RealClearPolitics
LAS VEGAS, Nevada Former president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who ll likely die in prison if he doesn t regain the White House (how s that for a subplot?), advanced to the podium late on caucus night, walking slowly and with a big smile. Trump always looks happy in casinos, even ones he doesn t own, but this particular watch party in front of a small rabid crowd on the second floor of the Treasure Island offered rare Schadenfreude possibilities. He was going to enjoy this one.
I d like to congratulate None of the above, he deadpanned.
The room exploded in laughter. Two nights before, in one of the most embarrassing events yet in an election year that s already one of the oddest and most controversial in our nation s history, Nevada held a primary for the first time. A spate of irregularities in their own 2020 Republican caucus and Iowa s Democratic disaster (for which there is still no declared winner) led Sagebrush State Democrats, who ve been trying for ages to supplant Iowa and New Hampshire as the country s first nominating contest, to pass a law in 2021 creating a Nevada presidential primary.
The catch was that the law contained a clause releasing both political parties from any obligation to use the new Nevada primary to allocate delegates. The state s Republican leaders, who, among other things, objected to mail-in voting, decided to hold a caucus in addition to the new primary and allocate delegates through the caucus only. This created a decidedly stupid situation in which Republicans could legally vote twice in nominating contests. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, flush with donor cash as this cycle s Never-Trump option and rumored to be determined to stay on the ballot through Super Tuesday, decided to run in the primary only, leaving the caucus and all the delegates for Trump, a situation the Brookings Institution called clear as mud. Running essentially unopposed in a symbolic primary: What could go wrong?
A lot, as it turned out. Over 74,000 Republicans showed up to vote on the Tuesday, Feb. 6 contest, but only 22,368 of them voted for Haley. A staggering 47,134 voted for None of these candidates, a 63-30% blowout that turned Nevada s inaugural Republican primary into a cross between a high-end troll show and a third-world-style electoral FUBAR. Trump couldn t have been happier.
Matt Tiabbi.