Haley loses Nevada’s GOP primary as Biden wins Democratic contest

Nikki Haley’s campaign reacted to her losing the non-binding Nevada GOP primary, with voters instead opting for “none of these candidates” on the ballot.

The state-mandated contest isn’t officially part of the Republican nominating process and won’t award any delegates.?

Here is a look at where CNN’s latest Democratic delegate estimate from Nevada stands:

Total pledged delegates won:

Remember: 1,968 pledged delegates are required to win the Democratic nomination.?

President Joe Biden is marking his primary win in Nevada by warning that the fundamentals of the United States are at stake.

Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign rally at the University of South Carolina - Aiken on February 5, in Aiken, South Carolina.

CNN projects that Nikki Haley will lose the non-binding Nevada Republican primary, where Donald Trump did not compete, to “none of these candidates,” an option voters have to express their dissatisfaction with all of the candidates on the ballot.

The state-mandated contest isn’t officially part of the Republican nominating process and won’t award any delegates.?

The state’s delegates will be awarded based on the results of party-run caucuses Thursday, where Trump will be the only major candidate on the ballot.

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Pearson Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 4.

President Joe Biden will win Nevada’s Democratic presidential primary, CNN projects, adding delegates in a state where he faced little opposition.

This win comes just days after he?notched his first official victory?of the 2024 nominating race in the?South Carolina primary on Saturday.

Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign rally at the Indigo Hall and Events venue on February 5, in Spartanburg, South Carolina.?

Ahead of Tuesday’s Nevada primary, Republican presidential candidate Nikki?Haley’s campaign outlined their reasoning behind participating in the state’s primary election instead of the party-run GOP caucuses on Thursday.?

More on the dueling GOP contests: While there will be a GOP?primary Tuesday, Republicans have chosen to award their delegates via the caucuses, and the dueling contests have caused some confusion among Nevada voters.

Some Republican presidential contenders, including?Haley, filed to run in the primary. Former President Donald Trump chose not to appear on the primary ballot, opting instead to appear on the GOP caucus ballot, which effectively guarantees his victory.

Haley has been focusing on her home state of South Carolina ahead of the GOP primary contest on February 24.

After turning several recent trials and court hearings into campaign stops, Donald Trump is not expected to be in the room when the highest court in the land takes up the question of his ballot eligibility, sources familiar with the planning tell CNN.

On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers will appear at the US Supreme Court for arguments over a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to throw Trump off the state’s ballot under the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office. Trump currently doesn’t plan to be there. Instead, he’ll be at Mar-a-Lago in Florida before traveling to a Nevada caucus victory party in Las Vegas.

Trump’s decision not to attend the historic Supreme Court arguments in the case – which would determine his ballot eligibility nationwide – is an indication of how carefully his team is handling the case before the court where Trump appointed one-third of the justices on the bench to create a conservative supermajority.

The arguments come as the Supreme Court is also expected to consider a more perilous legal question for Trump – whether he is immune from criminal prosecution for his actions following the 2020 election. Trump may feel more strongly about attending those arguments, according to another source familiar with his legal strategy.

Read more about the SCOTUS arguments and what is at stake.

President Joe Biden, center, takes photos with patrons at They Say restaurant during a campaign stop Feb. 1, 2024, in Harper Woods, Michigan.

Just how does?Joe Biden?win reelection? National polls?show him?trailing?Donald Trump?more often than leading him – a rare position for an incumbent to be in at this point in the campaign.

These national polls, though, mean little. You win elections state by state through the Electoral College. Back?in 2020, the closest battleground states (i.e., those decided by 3 points or less) were either around the Great Lakes (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) or along the Sun Belt (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina).

Biden would be reelected if he wins all the states in either region, so long as he also carries the remaining states he took in 2020.

At this point, though, it seems his easiest path to a second term runs through the Great Lakes rather than the Sun Belt.

Look at two?Fox News polls?released Thursday. Biden and Trump were tied in Wisconsin – a state the president won by less than a point in 2020. In Georgia, another state Biden won by less than a point four years ago, Trump held an 8-point edge.

These Fox News polls are not outliers. Trump hasn’t led (even within the margin of error) in any?Wisconsin poll?this cycle that meets CNN’s standards for publication. On the other end, he hasn’t trailed in any?Georgia poll?in well over a year.

Keep reading about Biden’s path to reelection.

It is 7 p.m. PT in Nevada (10 p.m. ET) and polls are closing across the state. Here are key things to know about the primaries being held Tuesday:

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden is on the ballot along with several other candidates, including Marianne Williamson, and the “none of these candidates” option. Rep. Dean Phillips entered the presidential race after the state’s filing deadline, so he won’t be on the ballot. Nevada Democrats will allocate their delegates based on the results of Tuesday’s primary and 36 delegates are at stake.

On the Republican side, a state-run presidential?primary is being held, which will not impact the state’s delegate allocation to the Republican National Convention. Those delegates will be awarded based on the results of the party-run?caucuses?held on Thursday.?Twenty-six delegates are at stake in the caucuses.

Donald Trump is the only major GOP candidate on the ballot in the caucuses. His GOP rival Nikki Haley is the only major candidate on the primary ballot Tuesday and there will also be an option for “none of these candidates.” Nevada GOP rules prevented candidates from participating in both contests, but eligible voters can vote in both.

Trump?faces no serious opposition to win the state’s 26 delegates in the caucuses.

Attendees cheer as President Joe Biden speaks during the South Carolina's First in the Nation Dinner at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 27.

Rev. Charles Williams is among those warily bracing for a rematch between?Joe Biden?and?Donald Trump. This time around, he believes at least one thing is different: Biden can’t win through voters’ fear of Trump alone.

“We saw something that scared us all, but here we are now, four years after that,” said Williams, the pastor of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church. “You realize, maybe this guy ain’t the boogeyman.”

Williams, who had a front-row seat to the soaring Black voter turnout in Detroit that?helped propel Biden to victory?in Michigan in 2020, said he believes exhaustion at the prospect of another Biden-Trump contest could complicate efforts to generate enthusiasm among young voters.

Four years ago, Biden built a diverse coalition of supporters – from all ages and races – to win the White House. But whether that?vast, fraying network?can be rebuilt will help determine whether Trump returns to power.

Keep reading about the Biden campaign’s efforts to rebuild the president’s coalition.

Ronna McDaniel speaks at the 2023 RNC Winter Meeting in Dana Point, California, in January 2023.

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel offered to leave her position after the South Carolina primary to allow former President Donald Trump to install his own leaders, two party advisers tell CNN.?

She has discussed these plans with Trump, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The South Carolina GOP primary will be held February 24.

Read more about McDaniel’s offer here.

President Joe Biden?entered the election year with an early financial edge over?Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, filings show – a bright spot for an incumbent with low approval ratings who is girding for a bruising general election rematch with his 2020 foe.

Biden had nearly $46 million in cash on hand in his main campaign committee, compared with $33 million amassed by Trump, who is still working to dispatch his lone, remaining major rival for the GOP nomination, former South Carolina Gov.?Nikki Haley.

But the reports underscore the challenges ahead for the president: Despite facing no real threats to his nomination, Biden has not built the cash reserves that would allow him to swamp Trump’s campaign, even as the former president faces?mounting legal woes?and Haley’s staying power in the race.

Trump’s available cash was more than double the $14.6 million in reserves held by Haley, according to Wednesday night filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Here are some takeaways from the new filings.

I Voted stickers with the Las Vegas skyline are displayed for voters at a Clark County vote center on Election Day during the Nevada 2024 presidential primary election in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 6.

President Joe Biden?is poised to win delegates in the Nevada presidential primary Tuesday as he marches toward the Democratic nomination. But former?President Donald Trump?will have to wait until Thursday, when the state Republican Party holds its caucuses.

Polls are set to close across the state at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET).

While there will be a GOP primary Tuesday, Republicans have chosen to award their delegates via the caucuses, and the dueling contests have caused some confusion among Nevada voters.

What’s clear, though, is that Biden and Trump face only nominal opposition, and both are expected to end the week winners of Nevada delegates to their parties’ nominating conventions. For Biden, Tuesday’s Silver State primary comes three days after he?notched his first official victory?of the 2024 nominating race in the?South Carolina primary.

Nevada’s first-in-the-West contest is now?second on the Democratic calendar?after the party demoted Iowa and New Hampshire — a change meant to ensure a diverse electorate weighs in at the start of Democrats’ presidential nominating battle.

On the Democratic primary ballot, Biden faces nominal opposition from a dozen candidates, including author Marianne Williamson. Minnesota Rep.?Dean Phillips, the president’s other best-known Democratic challenger, is not on the ballot,?having entered the race?after the state’s October 16 filing deadline had passed.

Republicans, meanwhile, are ignoring the outcome of Tuesday’s primary — one taking place without Trump on the ballot. Instead, the state GOP opted to award its delegates to the winner of party-run caucuses being held Thursday evening.

Read more about today’s primaries.

Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks to reporters in the spin room following the NewsNation Republican Presidential Primary Debate at the University of Alabama Moody Music Hall on December 6, 2023 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.?

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called the ruling from a federal appeals court, which found that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution in his 2020 election interference case, a “very tight, concise decision.”

He predicted the former president would be convicted ahead of the Republican National Convention this summer.

In his first interview on CNN since suspending his presidential bid, Christie told CNN’s Anderson Cooper he does not think the Supreme Court would entertain an appeal by Trump and predicted a trial would take place “later this spring.”

On his own candidacy: Christie, who suspended his candidacy just under a month ago, said he made the decision because he didn’t see a path forward for himself to defeat Trump, not so that he could boost GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

The former governor explained his continued resistance to endorsing Haley because “she’s not running against Donald Trump.”

He added: “The people who support me in this enterprise expect that if I’m going to support someone, they’re going to be as aggressive and as honest and direct about Donald Trump being unfit for the presidency.”

Yanira Graham, right, walks out of the Clark County Government Center with her mother Dolores Graham after voting on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Nevada is holding two?GOP?contests within three days: the state government-run primary on Tuesday, where Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot and no delegates are at stake, and the Nevada Republican Party-run caucuses on Thursday, where?the former president?faces no serious opposition to win the state’s 26 delegates.

Trump is only participating in the caucuses and?thus?isn’t on primary ballots. Meanwhile, his lone remaining?major?2024 GOP rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, is on the primary ballot and isn’t participating in the caucuses.

The parallel contests are the result of a 2021 Nevada state law that requires a primary — a shift from the state’s previous use of a presidential caucus system. Democrats?in the state?adopted the primary?system?— President Joe Biden and author Marianne Williamson will both be on the February 6 Democratic primary ballot — but Republicans rejected it, with the state GOP, led by Trump loyalists, opting instead to hold its own caucuses.

The Nevada GOP warned presidential candidates last year that they would not receive any delegates?if they filed to run in the state’s primary. But some, including Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence?chose to do so anyway. All but Haley have dropped out of the race.

Meanwhile,?Trump, as well as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Texas pastor Ryan Binkley filed to run in the caucuses.

The departure of those candidates (aside from the little-known Binkley, who is still in the race) effectively cemented Trump’s victory?in the caucuses before either of the dueling contests were held.

“We will deliver you 100% of delegates of the state of Nevada to Donald J. Trump,” Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald said at Trump’s Las Vegas rally.

The state GOP’s decision has faced critics who say it was an effort to help Trump fend off a competitive race.

President Joe Biden speaks at South Carolina's First in the Nation dinner at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday, January 27.

South Carolina, the state that launched?Joe Biden?to the?Democratic nomination four years ago,?delivered the president his first official primary victory of the 2024 campaign on Saturday.

In a result that was largely expected, Biden defeated his two nearest challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, as he claimed his first delegates in his quest to win his party’s nomination again. Biden?won all 55 delegates at stake in the South Carolina primary.

This year marked the first time South Carolina has appeared at the front of the official Democratic nominating calendar — a change made largely?due to Biden’s urging.

Biden, who was in Los Angeles for a fundraising event Saturday evening when his win was projected, said in a statement that South Carolina put him on a path toward victory.

Read more about Biden’s win in the South Carolina primary.

President Joe Biden will be joined by former Presidents Barack?Obama?and Bill Clinton at a fundraising event in New York City on March 28, according to a tweet from?Obama?that promotes a contest to attend the event.

“Folks – I’ll be in NYC on March 28th to support?@JoeBiden. Who’s coming with me? Chip in for your chance to join,”?Obama?writes in?his post on X.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on November 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.?

The House of Representatives vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed Tuesday evening, a stunning blow to House Republicans who had pushed the effort as a key political goal.

The House vote was 214-216. Three Republicans, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and California Rep. Tom McClintock, joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution. GOP Rep. Blake Moore joined the no side to allow the House GOP to bring up the vote again.

The failed vote underscored the challenges facing House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican conference trying to navigate a slim majority that has a variety of opinions.

House Republicans claim?Mayorkas?has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though several constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.

Read more about the impeachment vote attempt.

Winning individual primaries and caucuses is just one step in the long path to winning a party’s presidential nomination.

How does the Republican Party pick a presidential candidate, in a nutshell? Both parties hold conventions in the summer where delegates technically select the nominee. The process and rules are different for each party, but the primaries are about winning enough delegates to secure the nomination.

For the GOP, former President Donald Trump has a strong early lead after winning the most delegates in the first contest, the?Iowa caucuses,?and the second, the?New Hampshire primary.

The race is not over in this regard.?There are different kinds of nominating contests and different kinds of delegates in a?calendar?that stretches from January to June, so keeping track of the delegate math can get complicated. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will ultimately need to find a way to start winning contests if she’s going to eat into Trump’s growing delegate lead.

What is a delegate? Performing well in primaries and caucuses equals delegates, and the larger goal is amassing the magic number of delegates to secure a nomination before delegate voting at?the party convention.

How many delegates are there? Winning the GOP nomination requires at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process. Shortly after CNN projected that Trump would win New Hampshire, Trump had 32 delegates compared with Haley’s 17.

In years without an incumbent, like Republicans are experiencing in 2024, the winner frequently does not hit the magic number until May or even June. In 2016, in his first of three White House runs,?Trump hit the magic number?on May 26.

Read more about the GOP nominating process.

Lee Hoffman, right, tapes a sign for the Elko County Republican Party on the window of a building owned by Lina Blohm, left, on Saturday, December 16, 2023, in Elko, Nevada.

Donald Trump?is certain to win Nevada’s Republican presidential delegates — but some voters who want to back the former president are confused about why they can’t find him on their ballots.

It’s the result of a dueling 2024 system in which the Silver State will hold two?GOP?contests within three days: the state government-run primary on February 6, where Trump isn’t on the ballot and no delegates are at stake, and the Nevada Republican Party-run caucuses on February 8, where?the former president?faces no serious opposition to win the state’s 26 delegates.

What’s confounding some voters who are casting early primary ballots?is that?the choices in the two elections are entirely different.

Trump is only participating in the caucuses and?thus?isn’t on primary ballots. Meanwhile, his lone remaining?major?2024 GOP rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, is on the primary ballot and isn’t participating in the caucuses.

“In your state, you have both a primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing,” Trump told attendees at a Las Vegas rally last month.

However, some Trump supporters who weren’t aware of the distinction said they were baffled.

“I was like, why is the guy that I want to vote for not on this thing?” said Leslie Miller, one of many waiting in line for his recent rally there.

“It’s gonna be very confusing for people. It was for me,” said Angela Barsekian, a grandmother of two who said she backed Trump in the previous two presidential elections.

Read more about Nevada’s dueling GOP primary contests.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign event in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Monday.

As the South Carolina Republican primary approaches, the evidence is growing that?Nikki Haley’s?coalition is almost certainly not large enough to deny?Donald Trump?the GOP presidential nomination.

But evidence is also accumulating that her coalition is more than large enough to deny Trump the White House in a general election if her voters remain as alienated from him as they now say they are.

The support for Haley in the early GOP contests has mapped, probably more precisely than ever before, the segments of the Republican electorate most deeply disaffected with Trump.

In a possible rematch with Trump this fall,?President Joe Biden?will likely need to attract crossover support from a significant share of those ordinarily Republican-leaning voters to overcome?the towering discontent evident in polls?about his own performance.

Read more about how Haley’s voters could impact Biden’s re-election here.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

With?presidential primaries?underway and a?2020 general election?rematch seemingly the most likely outcome, a new?CNN poll conducted by SSRS?shows?former?President Donald Trump?narrowly ahead of?President Joe Biden?in what’s shaping up to be a close contest nationally.

The poll highlights voters’ conflicted feelings about the leading candidates. Broad majorities of Democrats and Republicans say they’d be satisfied if their party’s candidate won such a rematch. Still, a sizable minority of voters express a desire for another option if Biden and Trump are the nominees.

Overall, 49% of registered voters say they would back Trump if an election between the two were held today, while 45% support Biden?and?5% say they’d vote for someone else.

Those numbers are identical to?CNN polling on the contest in the fall, and the demographic dynamics of the contest appear to be steady – with a wide education gap among the most notable demographic divides, and smaller differences by age or race than in other recent presidential elections.

Read more about the poll’s findings.

Most Americans want to see a verdict on the federal charges former?President Donald Trump?faces related to?election subversion in 2020?before this year’s presidential election, according to a?new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And looking ahead, most expect Trump to pardon himself of any federal crimes he’s convicted of if he wins the presidency – or to refuse to concede if he loses in November.

About half of Americans, 48%, say it’s essential that a verdict is reached before the?2024 presidential election, and another 16% that they’d prefer to see one. Just 11% say that a trial on the charges should be postponed until following the election, with another quarter saying the trial’s timing doesn’t matter to them. A 72% majority of Democrats and 52% of independents say it’s essential that a verdict is reached pre-election. Republicans are more split. While 38% say that a verdict should be reached before the presidential election, including 20% who call that essential, another 39% say it doesn’t matter when the trial is held, and 23% that they think the trial should be held after this election.

Trump currently faces?four separate criminal indictments, including federal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The trial date in that case, originally set for March 4,?was postponed Friday, after the survey was conducted.

Some aspects of the case are likely to be appealed to the?Supreme Court. Only 42% of Americans express a great deal or a moderate amount of trust in the Supreme Court to make the right decisions on any legal cases related to the 2024 election, with 35% saying they have just some trust in the court,?and 23% that they have none at all. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to express at least a moderate amount of trust (52% to 36%). Among those who see a pre-election verdict in the federal Trump election subversion case as essential, just 35% express trust in the Supreme Court on election-related cases.

The first two Republican primary contests of the year took place in January —the Iowa caucuses?and?the New Hampshire primary.

On Saturday, Democrats held their first official primary election in South Carolina. Today, it is Nevada’s turn.

Here’s a look at the key upcoming primary dates:

February:

March:

Access the full 2024 election calendar.