Having lost the Nevada primary on Tuesday to “none of these candidates,” GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley lost again yesterday in the state’s caucuses because she didn’t compete.
So former President Donald Trump won all the state’s 26 delegates.
Trump also prevailed in the U.S. Virgin Islands, winning its four delegates.
Why Haley insists on staying in the race is almost inexplicable given that her chances of even slowing the Trump juggernaut are nearly nil.
Losers Cry Foul
As Politico reported of the contest, “The outcome of Nevada’s caucuses was never in doubt, with Trump running only against longshot businessperson and pastor Ryan Binkley. Nikki Haley, Trump’s only serious rival, participated instead in the state’s Tuesday primary, where she suffered a humiliating, second-place finish to ‘none of these candidates.’”
Binkley’s run is even more of a mystery than Haley’s mulish refusal to quit while she’s behind.
Trump won 59,545 votes to Binkley’s 536.
Haley refused to run in the caucuses, saying the contest was rigged for a Trump victory. But that move didn’t help her in the primary, which didn’t mean anything because it apportioned zero delegates.
“None of these candidates” bested Haley by 22,694 votes. “None of these candidates” received 43,893 votes, or 63.21 percent, to Haley’s 21,199, or 30.53 percent.
In the Virgin Islands contest, Trump pulled 182 votes to Haley’s 64, a 76-percent to 24-percent margin.
“Republican party officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands said they opted to hold the contest early to ensure the U.S. territory played an important role in the nomination of a candidate,” The Associated Press reported.
“As the Virgin Islands, like the other territories, doesn’t get to vote for president in the general election, it was important to ensure the voice and votes of voters … were heard,” GOP chieftain Gordon Ackley told AP. “Every state and every territory should try to make itself and its voters as relevant as possible. It’s absurd that the same couple of states have a monopoly on the calendar.”
The Virgin Islands race was, ABC News reported, rather more interesting than Nevada’s because it used ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank their first, second, and other choices. That violated GOP rules, the party said:
The party’s use of ranked-choice voting, and its decision to hold its caucuses so early, still caused quite a bit of drama. The Republican National Committee determined they were violations of its rules and knocked the territory down from nine delegates to four as a penalty. Local party committee members also claimed that [executive director of the Virgin Islands Republican Party Dennis] Lennox and Virgin Islands Republican Party Chairman Gordon Ackley didn’t consult them before adopting the plan, and the committee members attempted to oust the pair from their positions. However, the RNC eventually ruled that they didn’t follow proper procedure in doing so, so Ackley and Lennox remain in charge.
The Islands’ party will send nine delegates to the GOP national convention anyway, though that does not mean they will be seated. “If they insist on sending nine, they would have to appear before the conventions committee on credentials and await a report that would determine who gets seated to the entire convention,” AP reported.
With the latest two contests in his win column, Trump now has 63 delegates to Haley’s 17.
Prospects Ahead Are Dim
As The New American reported when Haley lost the Nevada primary to “none of these candidates,” her prospects in her home state of South Carolina don’t look any better.
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average of GOP primary polls puts Trump 56.2 points ahead of Haley, 74.3-18.1
In the Palmetto State, where GOP voters cast ballots on February 24, she trails by 30.7 points, 60.0-29.3.
Michigan Republicans vote on February 27 to award 16 delegates, and again on March 2 to award another 39. Haley trails in the RCP average by a mile there, too — by 51.7 points, 66.7-15.0.
On March 2, Idaho and Missouri voters will award 32 and 54 delegates, respectively.
