Nevada primary live updates: Haley on ballot as Trump looks to caucus – USA TODAY
Nevada’s primary is here, but that doesn’t mean former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump are going head to head at the ballot box.
The Silver State is holding a Republican primary on Tuesday, but Haley is the only major candidate participating. Trump this year opted for Nevada’s caucus, which is run by the Republican Party. That means the two won’t go face off until the South Carolina primary later this month.
President Joe Biden is also expecting to notch a win Tuesday in Nevada’s Democratic primary, as his challengers struggle to pick up steam across the country.
Keep up with the USA TODAY Network’s live coverage of the Nevada primary and check back here for results.
Republican Michael Holton, who works in manufacturing, said he begrudgingly voted for “None of these candidates” at a South Reno polling site. Holton, 61, said he wished Trump could have participated in the primary so the former president could defeat Haley in a head-to-head competition. Holton said Haley, a former Trump ambassador to the United Nations, is disloyal in running against her former boss.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
“I’m bummed he’s not on the ballot,” Holton said. “I feel the caucus will be strong for him but I’m just bummed he’s not on the ballot.”
– Trevor Hughes
The Nevada caucus is set for Thursday. The GOP will actually award delegates for the race, unlike the primary on Tuesday. Donald Trump is expected to participate, but Nikki Haley won’t be an option for caucusgoers.
– Marina Pitofsky
Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., one of Joe Biden’s major challengers, will not be on the ballot in Nevada. He didn’t meet a qualification deadline, but author Marianne Williamson and other challengers are running on the Democratic side in the Silver State.
− Marina Pitofsky
Donald Trump hasn’t said anything today about the Nevada primary, which isn’t surprising. He wants Republicans to ignore the primary and focus instead on Thursday’s caucuses, in which he is the only major candidate on the ballot.
During a campaign rally in Las Vegas over the weekend, Trump told supporters: “Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.”
– David Jackson
Polls close in Nevada’s Democratic and Republican primaries, which are run by the state, at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
– Associated Press
Outside a Reno voting site, Pedro Camargo, 65, said he voted for Biden in the primary, rejecting Trump as “a bully and a liar,” and saying he never considered Haley as a choice. He considered which candidate would better protect Social Security and Medicare, while trying to raise the minimum wage.
“I voted for Biden. The other guy wants to be a dictator,” said Camargo, an Uber driver in Reno. “I mean, he says he’d be a dictator for a day, but no one believes it would be for a day.”
Paul Leason, 41, was stationed outside a polling place asking voters to sign his petition to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the general election ballot as a third-party candidate. He opted to skip Tuesday’s primary and Thursday’s caucus because he thinks Trump and Biden are too old.
“(Kennedy’s) just better than the other two,” said Leason, who was recently inspired to get involved in politics by a podcast he listens to. “I’d take Trump over Biden though, but everyone’s old. I don’t think any people collecting Social Security should be running for office. It’s just the Boomers don’t want to give up power.”
Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess said there has been ongoing confusion among voters about the difference between the primary and the caucus.
“We get a lot of ‘why isn’t President Trump on our ballot?,'” Burgess said Tuesday morning. “And the answer is he opted out of participating in the Nevada presidential preference primary. He just decided not to participate in ours, but he’s in the caucus.”
Under a 2021 state law, Nevada is required to hold presidential primary elections as long as there are at least two candidates for a party’s nomination.
But Republican Party officials ‒ many of whom participated in a 2020 effort to subvert the presidential election results in Trump’s favor ‒ decided last year to hold a binding caucus. They also tried unsuccessfully to stop the state from holding the primary.
Burgess said she isn’t directly coordinating with the state GOP because her office is non-partisan, so her staff doesn’t give out information about the caucuses. Instead, she has been trained to refer all questions to the party directly.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said even his own friends called him up to complain about the dual contests, though his office alerted voters for months about the dueling contests, sending out postcards, posting signs and speaking to the media.
Nevada GOP has said previously it considered the primary election to be a waste of taxpayer dollars, and that party business should be funded and conducted by the party itself.
-Trevor Hughes
The storm that slammed California with rain this week has also brought heavy snowfall to parts of Nevada. A ski resort near Las Vegas said it had received nearly a foot of snow in 24 hours, and an avalanche occurred Monday leaving several people missing temporarily.
On this Primary Day, much of Nevada is under either a winter storm warning or a winter weather advisory in effect until at least 4:00 p.m. PST Tuesday. The National Weather Service says that travel may be difficult, especially in high-altitude areas.
To see the full list of weather advisories in effect, see the weather service website. Nevada’s Road Weather Information System website also tracks weather conditions by roadways.
– Kinsey Crowley
While waiting for Nevada primary results, Trump used his Truth Social account to propose an end to the conservative boycott of Bud Light because of its past partnership with a transgender influencer.
“The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions, and for that a very big price was paid, but Anheuser-Busch is not a Woke company,” Trump said in his post.
Trump applauded the Anheuser-Busch beer empire, saying it helps the nation’s farmer, hires veterans, and raises money for the families of fallen service members.
“Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance?” Trump asked rhetorically. “What do you think?”
– David Jackson
In Reno, the state’s third-largest city, Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess said the process was moving smoothly. Mail-ballot voting began Jan. 27 and workers at her office had been opening and preparing the ballots for counting after polls close.
The temperature as the polls opened at 7 a.m. was 28 degrees with clear skies, a major change from a significant weekend snowstorm days before.
“We’re right on schedule, right on point,” Burgess told USA TODAY.
After contentious 2020 and 2022 elections, the registrar’s office is now live streaming the ballot counting, hired a full-time security guard to monitor the counting room and installed a glass-enclosed observation room so people can watch the count without disrupting workers.
And despite repeated news coverage, some Republican voters were still angry or confused as to why Trump isn’t appearing on the GOP primary ballot, she said.
– Trevor Hughes
The only major Republican in Tuesday’s primary, Haley has requested Secret Service protection after saying she’s received increased threats, according to reports.
“We’ve had multiple issues,” Haley told the Wall Street Journal Monday. “It’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do.”
Haley has been the victim of two swatting attempts in recent months.
When asked about heightened security at her events last week, Haley told reporters that “when you do something like this, you get threats. It’s just the reality, and that’s OK.
The Secret Service typically provides protection to “major presidential and vice presidential candidates as identified as such” by the Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with an advisory committee, according to its website.
– Sudiksha Kochi and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Yes, Nevada offers same-day registration.
However, to register at the polls or update your voter registration at the polls, you must have a valid Nevada driver’s license or ID card. This rule goes without exception.
If your Nevada ID has an outdated address, the state does allow you to provide an alternative proof of residence. Find the list of acceptable items on the Nevada’s Secretary of State site.
– Kinsey Crowley
While Nikki Haley is trying to pick up momentum in Nevada, South Carolina and other pivotal 2024 contests, she’s still trailing Trump, the Republican frontrunner.
In a Real Clear Politics average of polls of the Republican field, Trump garnered 73.5% support across the country. In comparison, Haley received 18.8% support, even after rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and others dropped out of the GOP primary.
– Marina Pitofsky
Joe Biden cruised to an easy victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, the first official contest of the 2024 Democratic nomination process.
The Associated Press called the race for Biden about an hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m., even as Biden faced challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson.
While the president is expected to win the 2024 Democratic nomination, the primary season could give clues as to where Biden stands with his party’s base and whether he has lost supporters since his 2020 White House bid.
– USA TODAY staff
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature approved a change to make way for a presidential preference primary. It was intended to be a simpler way to pick the preferred presidential candidates for the two major parties.
However, the Nevada Republican Party balked at the new format and went in another direction. Instead of sending delegates to the GOP National Convention based on primary results, the party will consider only results from its Feb. 8 caucus, which it will host and pay for itself.
The party says the caucus embodies the election reforms it seeks, such as the use of voter ID, a single election day with no early voting, paper ballots and less influence from super PACs.
– Mark Robison