(PatriotWise.com) — In Tuesday’s Nevada Republican primary, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley came in second, not to Donald Trump, who didn’t appear on the ballot, but to “None of These Candidates,” a ballot option required by Nevada election law, CBS News reported.
Donald Trump’s name did not appear on the primary ballot, as the former president was only running in Nevada’s February 8 caucus. The state’s Republican Governor, Joe Lombardo, who has endorsed Trump, revealed that he would cast his primary ballot for “None of These Candidates,” and from the results, it appears that many Nevada voters followed his lead.
According to the Associated Press, with 86 percent of the vote counted, Haley was losing to “None of These Candidates” by a 2-to-1 margin.
Nevada’s 26 delegates will not be awarded to the winner of the primary but to Thursday’s caucus winner, a decision the state Republican Party made to ensure its delegates went to Donald Trump.
State election law requires Nevada to hold a primary. However, the Nevada GOP voted to hold Republican caucuses open only to registered Republicans. The state party also chose to award the delegates to the caucus winner, rendering the state’s required primary irrelevant in choosing the GOP nominee.
To further ensure Trump’s victory in the caucus, the state party also required candidates to choose between running in the primary and running in the caucus, not permitting them to run in both.
CBS News reported on Wednesday that Haley’s defeat to “None of These Candidates” was a “coordinated effort” by Trump supporters to deprive Trump’s remaining challenger of even a symbolic victory in the state.
This is the first year all registered voters in Nevada received a primary ballot by mail. Caucus captains for the Trump campaign told CBS News that they had instructed Trump supporters to cast their primary ballot for “None of These Candidates.”
In addition to Haley, former candidates Tim Scott and Mike Pence, along with four mostly unknown candidates, appeared on the primary ballot.
Nikki Haley chose to run in the Nevada primary because she did not have the resources to campaign in the state’s GOP caucus.
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