In comments to the Nevada Independent, Republican Joe Lombardo confirmed he will be supporting former President Donald J. Trump in the November 2024 election for U.S. President and will caucus for Trump in the Nevada GOP “First in the West” caucus on February 8th. Although Lombardo earlier referred to the caucus as “confusing” and “unacceptable”, he will be participating at an undetermined location to award the former president the delegates needed for his nomination,

“I believe [under President Donald Trump] the economic picture was better, more predictable, more stable. And then if you look at foreign affairs, [it was] more predictable and more stable,” Lombardo said. “I think he has the ability to move us out of the doldrums associated with President [Joe] Biden, Lombardo stated and added, “for all practical purposes … the race is over.”

As the former president faces multiple indictments, led by embattled, partisan prosecutors, Lombardo noted that “I feel comfortable, and my belief [is] you’re innocent until proven guilty,” Lombardo said. “And I think he is well situated to be successful moving forward on that case.”

During Trump’s “Commit to Caucus” rally in Reno Nevada, numerous GOP state legislator’s endorsed the former president including Assemblyman Ken Gray, Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen and her husband Senator Ira Hansen.

Assemblywoman Hansen told the crowd that after she had watched the Trump hearing in New York City and witnessed “bias so thick you could cut it with a knife,” she “promised to do everything she could to get him elected.” Hasen also encouraged Republican voters to vote in both the February 6th primary and the February 8th caucus “to ensure Republicans maintain their voting record.”

The caucus has led to some confusion with Republican voters across the Silver State and pundits and consultants have referred to the caucus as “rigged” and “chaotic.”

Yet, prior to the passage of AB126 in 2021, which ushered in a state-run presidential primary system, Nevada’s major political parties held caucuses for decades to choose and bind delegates to the national convention and nominating presidential candidates.

After 105,000 Democrats voted in the 2020 caucus, Bernie Sanders dominated the Democratic field, despite predictions of chaos, and his delegates overthrew the Harry Reid political power structure. After this shift in political power, legislation to prevent such political upheaval and caucus-related “chaos” was born.

At the time, Harry Reid told the Las Vegas Review Journal: “My No. 1 priority is getting rid of the caucuses. They don’t work. It was proven in Iowa. We did OK here, but the system is so unfair.”

In an opinion editorial for the Nevada Globe, National GOP Commiteeman for Nevada Jim DeGraffenreid challenged the detractors’ claims:

“It has been said that the caucus is being held so that it can be “rigged” to benefit President Trump. The fact is that  primary elections are far easier to “rig” than a caucus. Generally, they’re “rigged” by spending millions of dollars on dishonest and misleading campaign ads, and whoever has the most money wins. Ballots are counted out of sight for days after the election, mail in signatures are sporadically checked, and there’s no way to audit the results.

Caucuses, on the other hand, take place in thousands of individual precinct meetings around the state. The paper ballots are counted publicly in front of everyone at the meeting who wants to watch, and the results are posted publicly by the next day for all to see. It’s the very definition of a process that cannot be rigged.”