This week the presidential primary campaign heads to Nevada with a great deal of confusion in the air among voters. That confusion is connected to the caucuses and primaries occurring in the same week.
Most states have either a primary or caucuses. Nevada has both.
The Republican primary, which takes place on Tuesday, will feature former UN ambassador and governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley. However, the primary won't count towards the GOP nomination. Meanwhile, Donald J Trump is the only major GOP candidate that will appear on Thursday's Republican caucuses-which do count toward the nomination.
To some observers, the split races have effectively relegated the state to national irrelevance.
According to the Associated Press, Nikki Haley rejected the caucuses as unfair, and a scam set up by the Nevada GOP in order to secure a win for former president Trump. Her campaign looked at the $55,000 fee being charged to candidates by the Nevada GOP and was like "Nope!"
"We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada. We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity to participate in a process that is rigged for Trump," Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney told reporters on Monday. "Nevada is not and has not been our focus."
The campaign manager dismissed concerns about how Haley would potential fare in the primary, which is largely symbolic at this point. Instead, they're focused on South Carolina at its primary, which is slated to take place on Feb. 24.
For his part, Trump is expected to win all of Nevada's 26 Republican delegates. He needs to accrue a 1,215 votes to win the party's nomination and has until March to reach that number.
"If your goal is to win the Republican nomination for president, you go where the delegates are. And it baffles me that Nikki Haley chose not to participate," Trump's senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said in an interview.
What About Joe Biden?
The Democratic primary will take place on Tuesday and President Joe Biden is expected to walk away with the win largely unchallenged by author Marianne Williamson and a handful of lesser candidates.
Biden faces little resistance in his bid to win the primary, but he campaigned there on Sunday and Monday, anyway. Nevada is expected to be a swing state come November.
Because Trump already has a large grassroots following, he already has an advantage when caucuses are held rather than primaries.
However, the Nevada GOP made changes that barred any super PAC from helping candidates. Additionally, the GOP in the state barred Republicans from running in the primary election if they wanted to compete in party-run caucuses.
