Global News Desk:
While facing minimal opposition
in the Nevada Caucus, former President Donald Trump achieved a historic victory
on February 8. Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald declared it a milestone as no
other Republican candidate has garnered more votes in a caucus in the Silver
State. President Trump expressed gratitude to Nevadans for establishing this
"tremendous record”.
“We didn’t just win last night—we
dominated,” Mr. McDonald told The Epoch Times on Feb. 9, a day after the former
president’s latest record-breaking win.
In 2016, President Trump set the
record for the most votes received in a Nevada Republican caucus, 34,500. But
he “smashed his own record” on Thursday, drawing about 60,000 votes, pollster
Rich Baris said during his Feb. 9 podcast.
“This is a huge, huge, huge, huge
deal,” Mr. Baris said because caucus turnouts are notoriously low.
It’s harder to get people to
commit to a time-consuming caucus discussion than to just quickly vote in a
traditional primary election, Mr. Baris said.
weather to cast their ballots. “Every
state he’s been in, he’s been setting records,” Mr. Baris said.
The president’s win in Nevada
follows history-making results in two states, Mr. Baris notes. After the Jan.
10 Iowa caucus ended in a record-setting 29-percent margin of victory for the
former president, two contenders, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ohio
businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, suspended their campaigns.
In New Hampshire’s
first-in-nation primary on Jan. 23, President Trump faced off against his sole
remaining contender, Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United
Nations ambassador.
Although Ms. Haley attracted many
non-Republicans to vote in the Republican primary, President Trump still set a
new record for most votes received by any candidate in that state’s primary
(176,000).
In Nevada, people criticized the
GOP’s decision to persist with their time-honored caucus in defiance of the
state-mandated primary, Mr. McDonald said. “The pundits were against us; they
said, ‘You’ll have a terrible turnout.'”
That didn’t happen. Neither did
the nice “bounce” they had predicted would be in store for Ms. Haley, Mr.
McDonald said.
She opted to run in the
bragging-rights-only primary on Feb. 6, hoping for a symbolic win. President
Trump’s name didn’t appear alongside hers. He chose to compete in the
GOP-sanctioned caucus for delegates that count toward the Republican
presidential nomination.
But President Trump walked away
with all 26 of Nevada’s delegates in the caucus two days after Ms. Haley
suffered a symbolic loss to “None of Those Candidates” in the primary.
For the first time since that
option became available to Nevada voters in 1976, “None” drew more than half
the votes cast. About 47,000 people voted for “None,” and 23,000 voted for Ms.
Haley.
During President Trump’s victory
speech on Thursday, he said “None” served as a catchall that included him.
Thus, Ms. Haley’s symbolic defeat was, in essence, an historic win for him, he
and his supporters said.
“I would like to congratulate
‘None of the Above,’” he told several hundred volunteers and fans as they
howled with laughter. They had gathered for a caucus night watch party at the
Treasure Island Hotel in the heart of the famously flashy Las Vegas Strip.
President Trump took the stage
with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a former presidential contender who now
stands with other past rivals in supporting President Trump.
With Nevada’s big caucus turnout
for President Trump, “You’re sending a signal to the nation: This primary is
over; President Trump has won,” Mr. Burgum said.
More importantly, he said, in
November, “Nevada’s going to be a swing state” and will help President Trump
reclaim the White House from Democrat President Joe Biden.
In the 2020 election,
then-candidate Biden tallied about 3 percent more votes in Nevada than
President Trump did; he and other critics have blamed irregularities for his
loss there and nationally.
Critics of the GOP’s handling of
this year’s dueling primary and caucus in Nevada point out that President Biden
received 113,000 votes during the state’s Democrat primary–nearly double the
60,000 votes that President Trump received in the caucus.
But the vast majority of votes
for President Biden came from mail-ins; only 13,000 Democrats showed up to vote
in person on Primary Election Day, Feb. 6, the Nevada Secretary of State’s
Office showed.
About 10,000 Republicans cast
in-person ballots in their party’s “meaningless” and Trump-less primary. But
more than 60,000 showed up for the in-person caucus two days later. GOP leaders
say those numbers serve as a barometer for enthusiasm for President Trump and
could help drive him to victory in November against President Biden.
“Go back home, rest, and then
come back,” President Trump urged supporters, “because we’re gonna turn this
whole thing around,” referring to problems plaguing the United States, such as
illegal immigration and its involvement in the wars being waged in Israel and
Ukraine.
“If we win the state of Nevada,
it’s over for them,” he said, referring to leftists. “And our country’s gonna
be better, greater, bigger, more beautiful than ever before.”(News Source By The Epoch Times)
