Jacob Francy, '26
The Republican Primaries came down to the final two candidates from whom they can choose to challenge President Joe Biden’s run for re-election: former President and current front-runner Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador and Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley.
On February 6 and 8, Nevada held their primary and caucus. Because the Republican National Committee requires every state to hold a primary, Nevada still chose to use a caucus to decide who would receive their delegates, but they still held a primary, which meant nothing but extra polling. Due to the rules of the election, each candidate could only choose one of the events to be represented on the ballot. Nikki Haley, who has trailed significantly to Trump, decided to serve on the ballot for the primaries, while Trump’s campaign chose to be on the ballot for the caucus. Haley, even though she was the only candidate on the ballot, still lost. There were two options for Nevada primary voters: Nikki Haley or “None of these candidates.” Haley lost by over double to “None of these candidates,” which was an embarrassing blow to her chances of becoming the Republican nominee. Obviously, the voters of “None of these candidates” were mostly built up of Donald Trump supporters. Trump did well in Nevada, winning the caucus with essentially every vote, earning him all of Nevada’s delegates. The same day, the U.S. Virgin Islands also gave all 4 of their delegates to Donald Trump.
Weeks later, South Carolina held their primary. This state was the final decider for whether Nikki Haley had even a remote chance to continue her campaign, as South Carolina is her home state in which she served as Governor. Donald Trump received an abundant 60% of the votes, receiving 47 of the 50 delegates, which seemed to be the final uppercut to Haley’s chances of living in the White House. That night, Haley acknowledged the fact she lost, however, she vowed to stay in the race, saying that more than 40 more states still hadn’t voted yet. Super Tuesday, March 5, seemed to be the day she thought would put her back on the map. The opposite happened as Trump is just 200 delegates away from the nomination. She is expected to drop out soon.
Although I respect Nikki Haley for trying to stay in the race as a multi-racial, female, non-criminal option for the Republicans, it sadly looks like we are just nearing the inevitable: a Presidential rematch between two old men who have gotten 4 years older since the last election.