The Nevada Republican Party announced this month that it will hold the 2024 presidential caucuses on Feb. 8 to allocate the state’s presidential delegates — just two days after the state-run presidential primary. The double-system is creating uncertainty for voters and prompting pushback from candidates regarding which determines the state’s primary winner.
The Democratic-led legislature passed a state law in 2021 requiring presidential preference party ballots for each major political party, switching up Nevada’s historical caucus use. The presidential preference primary will be held on Feb. 6, and it is intended to replace Nevada’s caucus system.
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In May, Republican National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah filed a lawsuit against the recent state law in an effort to stop Nevada’s scheduled presidential primary election in February and keep its party-run caucuses. Judge James Russell of a Nevada District Court dismissed the lawsuit a month later, but he did not outlaw a supplemental caucus. The GOP party filed an appeal of the ruling to Nevada’s Supreme Court this week.
Despite the dismissal, Nevada’s GOP is moving forward with a party-run caucus, and officials have stated candidates who participate in the primary will not be able to participate in the caucuses or win delegates.
Some presidential campaigns are accusing the state party of using this strategy to favor the election for former President Donald Trump, given that multiple Republican state party members are allies of the former president. In 2020, Trump lost Nevada to Biden by less than 34,000 votes.
Multiple officials of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) super PAC Never Back Down are claiming Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who helped craft the move to keep the state’s caucus, is using the system to ensure Trump gets reelected.
“The situation in Nevada is very clear. They’re eliminating important grassroots processes which doesn’t benefit voters, but it does benefit one person: Donald Trump,” Jess Szymanski, deputy communications director of Never Back Down, told the Washington Examiner.
“Nevada Republicans continue to lose elections with Trump at the top of the ticket, yet state GOP leaders are so obsessed with appeasing Trump that they’ve rigged their primary to prioritize Trump above their own voters.”
The super PAC has suspended its door-knocking operations in Nevada and other Super Tuesday states.
“What we’re worried about is the continued gaming of this whole arrangement by McDonald and the Nevada GOP to seek advantage for Trump,” Never Back Down founder Ken Cuccinelli told ABC News.
McDonald defended the state’s caucus by saying it’s been a tradition in nearly every presidential election since 1981, telling ABC News, “It’s bigger than Gov. DeSantis” or “anybody that’s running for office.”
Nevada follows California and Michigan GOP primary changes this year, which some Republicans have rebuked as working to help Trump.
Last month, the California Republican Party moved to award all of its 169 presidential delegates to a candidate that wins the primary on March 5, a more favorable system for the party’s front-runner. The change throws away the long-standing system that awards delegates by congressional district.
“I will say I mean, clearly, clearly there’s an effort with some of the state parties, you know, to bend it in one way,” DeSantis told ABC News about the California GOP vote.
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Michigan’s Republican state committee approved a proposal in June that would allow Michigan to choose over two-thirds of its state delegates for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination through a caucus meeting days after the primary contest. The RNC, which was consulted during the process, would have to approve the final changes. Emma Vaughn, an RNC spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner in June that no plans have been settled on, and the RNC was only involved with the state committee through guidance about the rules and processes.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Nevada Republican Party, Never Back Down, Trump’s team, and DeSantis’s campaign for comment.
