Why Donald Trump Won Nevada Before Any Votes Were Cast

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nevada is doing things differently this year. Or at least, it tried to. The first presidential nominating contest in the west takes place on Tuesday — and on Thursday. But that’s not what state officials were hoping would happen when they decided to move from a caucus to a primary in 2021. Democrats got on board — and President Biden is expected to win that contest handily on Tuesday. On the Republican side, however, things did not go according to plan. A caucus was seen as being beneficial to former President Donald J. Trump, so state party officials — who were aggressively lobbied by the Trump campaign — decided to hold a caucus anyway. The caucus, not the primary, is what will determine which Republican candidate wins Nevada’s delegates. Nikki Haley, the last remaining significant challenger to Mr. Trump, opted to run in the primary, not the caucus. So Mr. Trump is effectively in a caucus without a real opponent. And his win is a foregone conclusion. Confused? You’re not alone. Today, with our colleague Jennifer Medina, we travel to East Las Vegas to talk to voters about what makes their state so critical — and so confounding — to Republicans and Democrats alike.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So historically, out of the four early voting states in the presidential nominating process,
0:10.0	Nevada often gets the least amount of attention. It's way out in the West, far from
0:15.3	Washington, D.C. And in recent history, the state has voted by caucus, a method
0:20.9	that has long been criticized for limiting who can vote.
0:24.0	Because generally, people have to show up in person at a specific time.
0:29.0	So after 2020 and more of that criticism. State officials decided to scrap the
0:34.9	caucus and hold a primary. The Democrats complied and President Biden is
0:40.5	expected to win that primary today without much competition.
0:44.9	On the Republican side, however, the Trump campaign exerted pressure on Republican officials
0:49.6	in the state to hold a separate caucus, a method that's seen is more beneficial to
0:54.9	Trump and the state party decided to do that and to make the caucus winner, not
1:00.0	the primary winner, the official recipient of the state's presidential delegates, effectively
1:05.3	making Nevada switch to a primary, meaningless, and guaranteeing that Trump would
1:10.8	leave the state one step closer to the nomination.
1:13.9	So when Trump said this in New Hampshire.
1:16.2	Next week is Nevada, it's not South Carolina.
1:18.4	We love South Carolina, but next week it's Nevada.
1:21.5	And I'm pleased to announce we just won Nevada.
1:24.0	He was one 100%.
1:27.0	He was basically right.
1:29.0	From the New York Times, I'm a Steth Herndon.
1:32.0	This is the run-up.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.