Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley suffered an embarrassing set back in her campaign to win the Republican presidential primary.
On Tuesday, voters went to the polls in Nevada for the state’s primary.
It was a fairly unique situation because the state has a primary, with no delegates at stake and former President Donald Trump did not participate in it, and a caucus that will take place on Thursday.
Trump is expected to win the caucus and the state’s 26 delegates.
But Haley chose to participate in the primary and not the caucus, and it did not turn out well for her even in the absence of the front runner.
As of Wednesday morning, Haley was trailing what Politico dubbed a “disembodied alternative” by over 30 points.
With 88% of the expected vote in, “None of these candidates” had received 62.9% of the vote, while Haley received 30.8%.
Trump promptly reacted to the embarrassment in a post on Truth Social, writing, “A bad night for Nikki Haley. Losing by almost 30 points in Nevada to ‘None of These Candidates.’”
“Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!” he added.
When you’re running to win the primary, you cannot spin your defeats to victory forever. Sure, you can claim a second place finish was a win and you’re on your way to the nomination for a few races.
But when you lose to someone who isn’t even a person or running, that is just embarrassing and there are really only a few ways Haley can spin the loss.
One is the state is just confusing, who has a primary and a caucus? And why limit the candidates to participating on one or the other?
Also, as Politico notes, she essentially skipped the state over its rule that candidates can only participate in the primary or the caucus. So it was not as though she was campaigning her heart out in Nevada only to lose to “None of these candidates.”
But overall, it was not a good night for Haley.
