Nikki Haley’s Campaign: ‘Nevada has not and has never been our focus’

One might think that any serious candidate for the 2024 presidential election would have chosen the Nevada GOP caucus in order to receive the needed delegates for the GOP nomination. One might also think that a serious campaign wouldn’t insult swing state voters by openly admitting that a key state, like Nevada, isn’t important. But, one would be wrong.

Enter Nikki Haley.

During a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) this weekend, Haley attempted some comedic shtick in front of a New York audience, yet with tomorrow being Primary Day in Nevada (a complete misnomer as early voting started last month), Haley’s campaign has spent zero time and zero dollars in Nevada.

Unsurprisingly, the Haley campaign finally admitted that appearing on a stage in New York City on Saturday night was more important that appearing in front of Nevada voters for Tuesday’s state-run primary.

According to Haley’s campaign manager “We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada….Nevada is not and has never been our focus.”

New this morning from Nikki Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney: “We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada. We aren't going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity to participate in a process that is rigged for Trump. Nevada is not and has never been our focus." pic.twitter.com/vKOgGnTo4s

— Sean Golonka (@s_golonka) February 5, 2024

Amid all the noise that the NV GOP caucus is “rigged,” The Globe has extensively reported on the key differences between the state-run primary and the Nevada GOP caucus. Yet, not one consultant, pundit, or tone-deaf campaign manager can explain how a caucus is rigged. Are voters confused about the caucus versus the primary? Yes. How is a caucus rigged? A Trump meltdown ensues.

From my Nevada purview, a primary is a much easier election process to rig than a caucus as Nevada allows for same day voter registration and voters can switch their party affiliation to vote in the primary and skew election results.

Back in November, I penned an editorial titled, “An Expensive and Useless State Primary.”

At that time, I reported:

With long-shot GOP candidate Tim Scott dropping out of the presidential race yesterday, preceded by Mike Pence (another candidate who had a snowball’s chance in hell), every registered Nevada Republican will receive a primary ballot with Tim Scott, Mike Pence, some no-name from Texas who is polling at ZERO and Nikki Haley, who is also polling close to zero.

Due to the fact that Scott and Pence dropped out after the statutory deadline, the two will still appear on the primary ballot.

Even if Nikki Haley receives every vote in the primary, she still won’t receive the delegates needed for the nomination, as decided by the Nevada GOP.

To note, all these single-digit candidates decided to run in the state-run primary after the Nevada GOP announced their decision to hold a First in the West Caucus and award delegates to caucus, not primary, contenders. Why would these GOP presidential candidates turn their back on the Nevada GOP and run in a useless primary? That is a question for their former and current campaign consultants.

With Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie participating in the caucus, the delegates will be divided amongst the top vote-getters. This requires every serious (and competitive) GOP presidential candidate to campaign in Nevada and convince Republican voters why they deserve the delegates and the nomination.

Nikki Haley doesn’t need to campaign in Nevada or fight for delegates since she was the last Republican long-shot to sign up for the primary. Instead of Haley’s campaign paying $35,000 to $55,000 to caucus in an important swing state, Nevadan’s will pick up her “campaign” tab by paying $5 million for her appearance on a useless ballot. (emphasis added)

Since November, Haley has lost Iowa, New Hampshire, and is predicted to lose the primary in her home state of South Carolina.

If Haley does “win” the useless but expensive Nevada primary tomorrow, she doesn’t win Nevada. She chose to lose Nevada, and all Nevadans get in return is a $5 million tab and insults from her flailing campaign.

The least Nevadans deserve from Nikki Haley is a “Thank You.”