Nevada Republicans confirmed on Monday that the state would bounce the normal line within the presidential nominating calendar by scheduling a caucus for Feb. 8, 2024.
For many years, in years with open presidential races, Nevada’s Republicans voted after South Carolina. The resolution to maneuver forward of South Carolina’s Republican major, set for Feb. 24 subsequent yr, was meant to lift Nevada’s prominence within the political panorama, the occasion stated in a press release.
But there was additionally one other possible motive: to upstage a presidential major scheduled for 2 days earlier, on Feb. 6. That major, run by the state, is required by a regulation pushed via by Nevada Democrats in 2021. Republicans, who’ve tried to dam the first in courtroom, say they may ignore the outcomes and use the caucus to choose delegates to the Republican National Convention.
A major, with secret ballots and simpler voting, sometimes yields broader voter participation. The potential for dueling election dates the identical week is more likely to sow voter confusion.
Nevada’s caucus will observe Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 15, and the New Hampshire major, whose date will not be but fastened.
“The ‘first in the West caucus’ underscores Nevada’s prominence as a key player in the presidential nomination process,” the Nevada G.O.P. stated in a press release on Monday.
While public polling of the presidential race in Nevada is scarce, nationwide surveys this yr present former President Donald J. Trump nicely forward of his closest rival for the nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. In Iowa, a current New York Times/Siena College ballot confirmed Mr. Trump with a big benefit over Mr. DeSantis and the remainder of the sphere, however his statewide help there may be smaller than his nationwide dominance amongst Republicans.
The chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, Michael J. McDonald, was one in every of six individuals who signed certificates designating Nevada’s electoral votes for Donald J. Trump in December 2020, although Joseph R. Biden Jr. was licensed because the winner of the state. He has additionally confronted calls to resign after the occasion backed a number of dropping election-denying candidates final yr.
The Republicans will not be alone in shaking up their calendars. The Democratic National Committee has radically reshaped its conventional nominating calendar for subsequent yr, designating South Carolina as the primary major and demoting Iowa and New Hampshire.
The transfer, endorsed by President Biden, was supposed to extra carefully mirror the racial variety of the occasion and the nation. But New Hampshire, the place state regulation requires it to carry the primary major, may solid a shadow over Democrats’ plans by holding, as anticipated, a late January major, one wherein Mr. Biden doesn’t seem on the poll.
Source: www.nytimes.com