Trump nearly doubles his Nevada caucus vote record, set to be hotly contested in November
CARSON CITY, Nev. – Former President Donald Trump achieved 99% of the vote in the Republican Nevada caucus on Thursday night, according to unofficial results.
Garnering nearly 60,000 votes, the only other candidate on the ballot was Ryan Binkley, who obtained a little more than 500.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is still running, but lost Nevada’s GOP primary, where delegates were not up for grabs, to “None of these candidates” by over 30 points.
Trump won the Nevada caucus in 2016, which was a contested primary; however, then, he achieved just over 34,000 votes, nearly doubling that total Thursday night in a likely contested state come November.
In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in Nevada by around 27,000 votes, or close to 2%. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the state by around 30,000, or 2.3%.
However, in 2022, the state elected Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo by around 16,000 votes, signifying a potential trend or appetite for Republicans in the coming elections compared to past performances.
Current polling paints a similar picture: Trump leads Biden by around 7% in Nevada over Biden. For comparison, in 2020 on election day, Biden led the polls in the state by almost 3%.
Expected to be a hotly contested state among others like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Nevada will deliver its six electoral votes to the state’s popular vote winner Nov. 5.
The state is not as vital for Trump to win as Arizona, Georgia and a Rust Belt state, but it will help him breach the 270 electoral votes required to be elected president.
Even if Trump wins Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, he still needs to win one of either Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin.
Depending on how the election plays out, Trump could also lose both Arizona and Nevada if he wins Pennsylvania and Georgia alone, on top of the other “lean” or “likely” Republican states, or would have to win both Michigan and Wisconsin to breach 270.
As it stands in polling, Trump is performing the best in Georgia and Nevada with a lead of around 7%, Michigan with close to 5%, and Arizona with around 4.5%. If his lead holds, those states alone are enough to deliver Trump the presidency. However, the eight months until the election is more than enough time for sizeable shifts to occur in either direction.
As of Feb. 9, Trump leads Wisconsin by a razor thin 0.6%, and Biden leads in Pennsylvania by 0.3%, both virtual ties too close for polling to suggest a clear leader.
