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Nevada Republicans confirmed on Monday that the state would leap 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 choice 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 celebration stated in an announcement.
However there was additionally one other doubtless 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 by 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 select delegates to the Republican Nationwide Conference.
A major, with secret ballots and simpler voting, usually 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 is just not but mounted.
“The ‘first within the West caucus’ underscores Nevada’s prominence as a key participant within the presidential nomination course of,” the Nevada G.O.P. stated in an announcement on Monday.
Whereas public polling of the presidential race in Nevada is scarce, nationwide surveys this yr present former President Donald J. Trump properly forward of his closest rival for the nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. In Iowa, a current New York Occasions/Siena Faculty 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 Social gathering, Michael J. McDonald, was one in all six individuals who signed certificates designating Nevada’s electoral votes for Donald J. Trump in December 2020, regardless that Joseph R. Biden Jr. was licensed because the winner of the state. He has additionally confronted calls to resign after the celebration backed a number of dropping election-denying candidates final yr.
The Republicans usually are not alone in shaking up their calendars. The Democratic Nationwide 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 meant to extra intently replicate the racial range of the celebration and the nation. However 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.
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