The dueling primary and caucus voting meant that Nikki Haley and Trump did not go head to head in the southwestern state.
Former US President Donald Trump won an easy victory in the Nevada caucuses, moving one step closer to claiming the Republican nomination for the 2024 general election.
The results were far from a surprise, as Trump only faced candidate Ryan Binkley in the caucuses. Her main rival, Nikki Haley, skipped the event, saying her organizers had heavily skewed the vote in Trump's favor.
As of Friday, it had claimed more than 99 percent of the roughly 60,000 votes cast in the caucuses.
“We're leading everyone,” Trump said in a victory speech from Las Vegas.
“Is there any way to call elections for next Tuesday?” he added. “That's all I want.”
So far, Trump has come first in the first three states of the US primary season, which determines which candidate the country's two main parties (Republicans and Democrats) nominate as his rival in the presidential election.
Trump's victory means he will add Nevada's 26 delegates to his tally. The candidate who wins the most delegates nationwide will be named the party's nominee during the Republican National Convention in July.
The Republican candidate will face President Joe Biden in the November general election. Biden currently does not have any major challengers within his party for the nomination.
'Sealed, bought and paid for'
Still, Thursday's victory largely rang hollow in the absence of Haley, who instead participated in a separate (and purely symbolic) primary vote in Nevada on Tuesday.
The events of the duel were the result of a confrontation between the Republican Party and state legislators.
In 2021, the Democratic-dominated state legislature passed a law requiring Nevada to hold a primary vote, which resembles a traditional election. The Republican Party in Nevada had for decades held caucuses, which are statewide meetings where registered Republicans debate and choose a candidate.
In protest against the new law, state Republicans said they would continue holding their caucuses. The party has the final say on how state delegates are divided, meaning only the caucuses had any say in the nomination process.
For her part, Haley has accused Republicans of pushing forward with the caucuses to boost Trump. Caucuses typically bring together only the most passionate members of the party, who lean most pro-Trump.
Primaries tend to attract a broader swath of party voters, which could have benefited Haley. She had previously dismissed the caucuses as “sealed, bought and paid for.”
He again called the process “rigged” after he ended up endorsing “none of these candidates” in Tuesday's vote.
Dismissing the result, he said his campaign had never taken the race seriously and told Fox News that they had planned not to “spend a day or a dollar in Nevada.”
To South Carolina
From Nevada, the Republican primary schedule now shifts to South Carolina, where Haley had previously served as governor. Despite his local roots, Trump remains popular in this deeply conservative state.
A loss in South Carolina could be a death knell for Haley's dwindling prospects.
However, the future of the race remains uncertain, with Trump facing four separate criminal charges.
Earlier this week, a federal appeals panel ruled that Trump can face trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It rejected his claims that he has immunity from prosecution.
Colorado and Maine have also said Trump cannot appear on their primary ballots, citing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for Colorado's disqualification of Trump. Lawyers for the state argued that Trump's actions constituted an insurrection, barring him from running under the US Constitution.
