Thus far, with the Oct. 16 filing deadline, Reno resident Heath Fulkerson and Texan John Castro—who is suing to remove former President Donald Trump from several state ballots, including Nevada’s—are the only two candidates registered to run in the Feb. 6, 2024, GOP presidential primary.
Meanwhile, with an Oct. 15 filing deadline, President Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and radio commentator Larry Elder, Jr., have registered to participate in the Feb. 8 ‘First-in-the-West Nevada Caucus’ that the state party’s central committee approved in an August vote as a boycott alternative to the state-run primary.
The central committee said it opted for the caucus after the state’s Democrat-led Legislature rejected Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposed election reform laws, which would have required a state-issued ID when casting ballots as well as when registering to vote.
“Nevada is currently missing Voter ID, transparent tabulation in elections, precinct-based voting, and we see our streets and trash cans flooded with unsolicited mail-in ballots,” Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald, a 2020 Trump elector, wrote in his call to action before the August meeting. “I will NEVER give up the fight for free and fair elections.”
Therefore, the caucus will require valid IDs for participants, use paper ballots, and be a same-day event while the primary, conducted under Nevada’s election laws, will feature universal mail-in ballots, early voting, same-day registration, and require an ID only to register to vote, not cast ballots at the polls.
Prior to the 2022 midterms, Nevada has since 1981 had a caucus system to determine how parties allocated the state’s 26 delegates to national conventions.
After the 2020 presidential election, the state Legislature adopted a presidential primary system. The Nevada GOP central committee opposed the primary adoption and, in May 2023, sued the state to retain its caucus.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said that under the 2021 state law creating a primary system, his office is mandated to conduct a state-run primary once a second candidate—regardless of how unknown or viable—registers to run.
That happened on Oct. 4, when Mr. Castro registered as a 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
There will also be a Democrat presidential primary on Feb. 8. As of Oct. 10, Marianne Williamson is the only “name” candidate among the three who have filed with the state as Democrat presidential contenders.
As far as his office is concerned, Mr. Aguilar has explained, it is simply following state law in staging the contest. If a state party committee wants to conduct its own separate binding caucus under its own rules, that’s up to them and their national committees.
‘Rigged’ for Trump
The central committee’s August caucus vote also included an important addendum: Any candidate who participates in the Feb. 6 state-run primary would be excluded from the Feb. 8 party caucus ballot.As of Oct. 10, none of the leading Republican candidates have entered the Feb. 6 state-run primary, while only the Trump, Ramaswamy, and Elder campaigns have signed onto the Feb. 8 caucus.
With filing deadlines less than a week away, it is uncertain which nomination contest other GOP candidates will sign up for with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign and supporting PACs bluntly critical of the Nevada GOP central committee and Mr. McDonald in particular.
Nevada was one of four states that the DeSantis-backing ‘Never Back Down’ super PAC dramatically scaled back in September. While it did so for varying reasons in California, Texas, and North Carolina, ‘Never Back Down’ PAC founder Ken Cuccinelli alleged the scale-back in Nevada was because caucus rules are rigged to favor President Trump.
“Trump hates rigged elections, except when he’s doing the rigging, like he’s doing in Nevada,” he said in a statement.
PAC communications director Erin Perrine, in a statement, called Mr. McDonald a “Trump puppet executive director” fostering “a pretty unstable environment” that would benefit the former president.
President Trump, who signaled support for the caucus in August, formally signed onto the Feb. 8 event this week, according to an Oct. 10 Nevada GOP press release.
President Trump’s “decision to officially sign onto the ballot for the 2024 presidential race reflects his unwavering dedication to the people of Nevada and his strong commitment to the ‘America First’ agenda,” the central committee’s announcement said.
“I am honored to officially file to run in the First in the West Nevada Caucus,” President Trump said in the party’s statement. “Taking back the White House and defeating ‘crooked’ Joe Biden in the Silver State will send a strong signal that the ‘America First’ movement grows more powerful every day.”
“We are thrilled to welcome President Donald J. Trump to the ‘First-in-the-West Nevada Caucus.' His strong America First policies resonate with voters in the Silver State and across the nation,” Mr. McDonald said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Nevadans to connect with a candidate who has a proven track record of delivering results.”
Under the central committee’s plan, voters can pre-register for the ‘First-in-the-West’ caucus on the Nevada Republican Party’s website.
