The former US ambassador to the UN and former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, failed this Tuesday in her attempt to win the Republican primary in the state of Nevada, where voters supported the 'neither candidate' option to strengthen Trump .
According to the projections of the newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post, with 53.1% of the ballots counted, the alternative of 'none of the candidates' obtained 61.2% of the support and Haley received 32, 4 %; The rest went to candidates who have even already abandoned the race for the Republican nomination.
Former President Trump's name did not appear in this vote because he will appear in a separate contest under the 'caucus' format this Thursday that, presumably, will win him the 26 delegates that are disputed in the known as the Silver State.
The American media, equipped with technology to estimate election results, announced their projections for Haley approximately two hours after the polls closed at 7:00 p.m. local time in Nevada.
Haley could not compete in both the primaries and the caucuses because the Republican Party established that candidates had to choose between one or the other.
In any case, all the delegates that Nevada awards to the winner of the Republican Party seem to go to Trump, who needs 1,215 delegates to officially declare himself as a candidate.
"We all know 80-year-olds who can run circles around us... and then we know Trump and Biden. We need a president who has the focus and stamina to meet all the challenges he faces." our country," Haley had stated a few hours before the projections became known on the social network X.
The Republicans opted for two models in Nevada: primaries this Tuesday and, just two days later, on February 8, the 'caucuses', which are a type of assemblies in which voters must attend at a specific time to vote for their party. candidate.
For decades, Nevada held caucuses. However, as these appointments tended to cause some chaos, state legislators approved a law in 2021 that abandoned that voting model, also used in Iowa, and established that state authorities had to organize primaries when there was more than one candidate.
However, that 2021 law had a legal loophole: although it established that there must be primaries, it did not specify how the Republican Party would assign the winner to the 26 delegates from Nevada, who are the ones who during the party conventions officially proclaim the candidate, both Democratic and Republican for the presidential elections.
Taking advantage of that loophole, Trump pressured the Nevada Republican Party to ignore state law and continue its caucus tradition.
The former US president had already told his voters at a rally in Las Vegas last month not to pay attention to the primaries: "In your state, there are primaries and caucuses. Don't worry about the primaries, just do the caucus thing." 'caucuses,'" he said.
Trump is on the verge of clinching the Republican presidential nomination following his back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and both he and Biden are setting their sights on each other ahead of a likely rematch in the November general election.
Meanwhile, Haley, who has recently requested protection from the Secret Service due to the increase in threats in her political dispute against Trump, is finding it increasingly difficult to hold on in the race for the Republican nomination until, at least, one last battle in her home state, South Carolina, next February 24.
