Former President Donald Trump won Nevada's Republican presidential caucuses on Thursday as the only major contender to contest, his third consecutive state victory as he seeks his party's candidature for the upcoming US presidential elections, news agency Associated Press reported. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, his final significant challenger in the campaign, did not attend the caucuses, despite the fact that they are the only election in Nevada that counts towards the grand old party's nomination.
Haley criticised an unjust procedure that favoured Trump and competed in Nevada's symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday, finishing below the "none of these candidates" option.
Trump will win the majority, if not all, of the state's 26 delegates. He needs 1,215 delegates to formally secure the party's candidature and might achieve that threshold in March.
The Republican primary in South Carolina, Haley's home state, will take place on February 24. Trump remains popular in the extremely conservative state, but Haley, who has won two elections as governor of South Carolina, hopes her local connections will give her an advantage. Trump is hoping for a large delegate count on the March 5 Super Tuesday contests, which would take him closer to being the grand old party's presumptive candidate.
Trump delivered a brief victory speech in Las Vegas, basking in reports of huge lines in the Western state and telling his fans that he was anxious to claim victory in the forthcoming South Carolina primary.
“We’re leading everybody. Is there any way we can call the election for next Tuesday? That’s all I want,” he was quoted by AP in its report.
Though Trump has been the front-runner, Nevada's caucuses were viewed as particularly slanted in his favour because to the significant grassroots support that caucuses need candidates to mobilise throughout a state in order to succeed. Nevada's state party provided him an advantage last year by prohibiting candidates from participating in both the primary and caucuses, as well as limiting the influence of super PACs, such as those that were critical to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' candidature before he dropped out.