Nikki Haley loses Nevada Republican primary because ‘none of these candidates exist’

• Nikki Haley was the only major presidential candidate to appear on the state’s Republican primary ballot.
• Despite this, she still lost.
• Instead, the option “None of these candidates” ended before her.

Despite being the only major candidate currently running in Nevada’s official Republican presidential primary, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley lost on the “none of these candidates” option.

Nevada law currently requires the state to host primaries, but specifically does not force political parties to use the results of state-sponsored primaries to allocate delegates.

For this reason, the Nevada Republican Party is holding a caucus to decide how to distribute its 26 delegates. Importantly, the Nevada Republican Party said that if candidates choose to participate in the state-run primary, they will also not be allowed to participate in the Feb. 8 caucuses.

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Haley applied to compete in the 2023 state House primary, even though she didn’t win any delegates. Haley is the only major candidate on the Nevada primary ballot because former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the race, is registered to caucus. Therefore, her name will not appear on the caucus ballot.

But Haley wasn’t the only one to participate in the primary. Several candidates who have since discontinued their campaigns appeared on the ballot, along with a “none of these candidates” option, which ultimately garnered even more votes Tuesday night.

Ms. Haley is still considered the “winner” as the candidate with the top actual votes in the primary, but there is no clear benefit to this accomplishment, let alone a lack of delegates.

In 2020, after finishing third in the state caucuses, then-Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg complained to state officials that he believed there were discrepancies in the way votes were counted. His appeal ultimately led the Nevada Legislature to adjust how its primaries are run, and the state is now required to run them, rather than Republicans or Democrats.

As NBC’s Steve Kornacki reported, the option “None of these candidates” has been on Nevada ballots since 1975, but it received support of more than about 2.5% in the presidential general election. I never got it.