Why is Nikki Haley running in the Nevada primary if it doesn't count

[Pres Mike]

In 2021, Nevada moved from a caucus towards a primary

On Tuesday, the state will have a primary for both Democrats and Republicans. The Nevada Republican Party, is refusing to accept the primary results. They wanted to keep the caucus system. They will hold a party run caucus on Thurs, Feb 8. The RNC will award delegates based  on the unofficial party run caucus.

Only Trump applied to run in the caucus, so he automatically wins all 26 delegates from Nevada.

Nikki Haley only applied to run in the primary. But why? She can't be awarded any delegates.

She probably just wants to say she won Nevada so she can build "momentum". Which is ridiculous since she'll be the only one on the ballot.

Why is the state Republican party boycotting the primary? I suspect its because the Nevada state assembly only changed it because the DNC wanted to move away from caucuses (rightfully so)

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It was probably to open up the possibility of defeating Trump on 2 fronts in 1 state: DeSantis defeats him in the Caucus while she defeats "None of the Above" in the Primary.


Of course, DeSantis has dropped out, and the way things are going, None of the Above may be victorious.

[Redban]

She (like Desantis before her) argues that Trump basically has lock on the people running the Nevada Republican Party, which effectively rigs the caucus for him by giving him a deep organization to start with. So she's rejecting the caucus and doing the primary basically out of protest.

Haley will claim victory for the primary. Trump will claim victory for the caucus. And most regular folks will probably be confused about why Nevada had both a caucus and a primary. And Nevada doesn't have many delegates.

So whatever happens in Nevada won't affect the primary race much

[Redban]

It was probably to open up the possibility of defeating Trump on 2 fronts in 1 state: DeSantis defeats him in the Caucus while she defeats "None of the Above" in the Primary.


Of course, DeSantis has dropped out, and the way things are going, None of the Above may be victorious.

DeSantis's campaign had the same criticisms of the caucus as Haley does, so they likely knew they weren't winning it

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/desantis-super-pac-calls-nevada-gop-primary-rigged-for-trump-other-candidates-shy-away-from-state

Never Back Down, the super PAC backing DeSantis, criticized that decision in announcing that it was suspending door knocking operations in Nevada.

“Unfortunately, state GOP leaders are so obsessed with appeasing Trump that they’ve rigged their primary to prioritize Trump above their own voters,” a Never Back Down official told The Nevada Independent. “They’re eliminating important grassroots processes which doesn’t benefit voters, only Donald Trump, so it doesn’t make logical sense to continue spending resources on grassroots efforts like door-knocking in the state.”