Trump wins Nevada, Virgin Islands to close in on Republican nomination
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[February 09, 2024]
By Tim Reid
(Reuters) -Donald Trump won Republican presidential nominating caucuses
in Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Thursday, moving closer to
becoming his party's White House standard-bearer in a likely general
election rematch with U.S. President Joe Biden in November.
Trump, the frontrunner in his party's nominating race, was the only
major candidate competing in Nevada's caucuses and was set to win the
state's 26 delegates to the party's nominating convention in July after
being projected the winner on Thursday night by Edison Research.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump easily won the U.S. Virgin Islands caucuses,
adding four to his delegate haul. The former U.S. president won 182
votes, or 74% of the 246 votes cast there, beating his last remaining
rival in the Republican race, Nikki Haley, who won 26% support with 64
votes.
The Nevada caucuses, organized by the Trump-friendly Nevada Republican
Party, came two days after a state-run primary election, which saw a
humiliating defeat for Haley.
Despite being the only major candidate on Tuesday's Republican primary
ballot, Haley was still roundly defeated after tens of thousands of
Trump supporters turned out to mark their ballots with "none of these
candidates," an option which garnered 63% of the vote to Haley's 30%.
Trump spent Thursday morning watching coverage of arguments in a case he
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court concerning Colorado's decision to
remove him from this year's ballot for engaging in "insurrection"
relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The justices appeared skeptical of Colorado's actions, expressing
concern about the precedent it could set.
Speaking to reporters before he left Florida for Nevada, Trump called
the Colorado case "more election interference by the Democrats."
After his win, Trump appeared before supporters in Las Vegas.
"I want to thank the great people of Nevada," he said to cheers. He
called Thursday's Supreme Court arguments "a beautiful sight to watch".
Trump is close to winning the Republican nomination after back-to-back
wins in Iowa and New Hampshire last month.
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Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald
Trump speaks during a Nevada caucus night party at Treasure Island
Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. February 8, 2024.
REUTERS/David Swanson
Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, is refusing to quit the nominating
race, a move which has infuriated Trump. Haley is vowing to stay in
the race and make a potential last stand in her home state of South
Carolina, which holds a primary election on Feb. 24.
Haley has no clear path to the nomination and trails Trump badly in
opinion polls in South Carolina, where she was governor for six
years.
The competing Republican ballots in Nevada this week were the result
of a conflict between the state Republican Party - run by Trump
allies - and a 2021 state law that mandates a primary must be held.
Presidential nominating caucuses are run by state political parties,
not the state, and the Nevada Republican Party decided to stick with
a caucus on Thursday. It was viewed as more helpful to Trump because
of his superior ground game in the Western state.
Haley chose to compete in Tuesday's primary. Trump went for the
caucus. The state party ruled that only candidates contesting
Thursday's caucus could compete for delegates.
Despite the results in Nevada having little impact on the Republican
nominating contest, the state will be a hotly contested battleground
because its population can swing to either party and play a
significant role in November's presidential election.
In 2020, Biden beat Trump in Nevada by 2.4 percentage points.
Opinion polls show a likely rematch between Biden and Trump in the
state will be close.
About 30% of Nevada's population is self-described as Latino or
Hispanic on the U.S. Census, and Republicans are making some inroads
with these voters nationwide.
Nevada also has many potential swing voters: There are 768,000
registered as "nonpartisan," more than those registered as either
Democrat or Republican, according to the latest state figures.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Ross Colvin, Jonathan Oatis,
Deepa Babington and Tom Hogue)
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