Donald Trump supporter Lafe Brown (wearing Trump T-shirt) casts a ballot at the Western High School Republican caucus site Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.
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Nevada’s Republican voters may be faced with two nominating processes to elect their preferred presidential candidate for the 2024 election, raising concerns it will be confusing to voters wanting to participate in one of the nation’s oldest political traditions.
The Nevada Republican Party will hold its “First in the West Caucus” on Feb. 8, which the party maintains will mark a “crucial step” for the GOP’s nominating process and amplifies the state’s role in the national political landscape, according to a news release sent Monday.
But that’s two days after Nevada’s Presidential Preference Primary, which will be conducted by the Secretary of State’s office in conjunction with each of the state’s 17 county clerks.
The Nevada GOP is warning that candidates who participate in the primary will not be able to participate in the caucus — the nominating contest party officials assert will be used to cast state’s delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.
Additionally, candidates must also pay $55,000 to participate in the caucus, of which $20,000 can be rebated if the candidate campaigns with the state party, according to one source.
“Candidates who wish to earn delegates for the presidential nomination are limited to caucus participation — they cannot participate in a state-run beauty contest that is not sanctioned or approved by the party and expect to earn legitimate Republican delegates,” Sigal Chattah, one of Nevada’s two representatives on the Republican National Committee, said in a statement to the Sun. “The GOP caucus has been running in Nevada since 1981, so it’s a historical, well-established election process.”
Republicans have spent the past several months resisting the transition to a primary system, which was instituted with then-Gov. Steve Sisolak’s signing of Assembly Bill 126 into law during the 2021 Nevada legislative session.
In May, Chattah, who is an attorney, filed a lawsuit against Nevada and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar contending that with enactment of AB 126, the Nevada Republican Party’s freedom of expression would be hampered, thus violating its First Amendment rights.
Last month, Carson City District Judge James Russell ruled against the state Republican Party. Chattah on Wednesday appealed the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court.
In arguing against the GOP’s lawsuit, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford noted the presidential preference primary must be conducted by the state, but major political parties are not bound to participate, nor are they required to assign delegates based on the results of the primary.
“The non-binding PPP (presidential preference primary) election does not burden the freedom of association,” Ford wrote in a July 20 filing prior to Russell’s ruling. “It does not compel any action on behalf of the NV GOP or its members, and it does not prohibit any action on behalf of the NV GOP or its members.
“Following a PPP election, the major political party’s state central and national committees are free to afford whatever weight they chose to the results of the PPP election. Throughout the entire PPP election process, no major political party is required to do anything or be bound by any results, no major political party candidate is required to participate in the PPP election process, and no voter is required to vote in a PPP election,” Ford wrote.
The new law prescribes that a presidential preference primary must not be conducted for a major political party if either one or no candidates files a declaration of candidacy, meaning it’s possible a Republican presidential primary might not take place.
In Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county, Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo told the Sun the county was only expending resources on the Feb. 6 primary, and those seeking to participate in the caucus should reach out to the Nevada GOP.
“We are focused on the presidential preference primary,” Portillo said.
Primary vs. caucus
With the passage of AB 126, the state must prepare presidential preference party ballots for each major political party. The primaries themselves, however, are “closed” meaning only voters registered as a Democrat can participate in the Democratic presidential preference primary, and only registered Republicans can take part in the GOP’s PPP.
In a caucus system, voting is conducted at local precincts where a registered voters of the party conducting the caucus often either raise their hands or break into groups according to a candidate participant’s support. A party may also opt to make the voting secret.
Chattah told the Sun in her statement the Nevada GOP’s caucus would feature many “common sense” safeguards supported by a majority of Republican voters that aren’t a part of the state-run primary. Caucus participants will be required to show a valid form of identification and can only participate in person. Because no mail-in ballots need to be counted, votes will be tabulated that same night with the hope that results will be available shortly after, Chattah said.
“Nevada Republicans believe that it’s important that our voter’s voices are heard in a timely way,” Chattah said. “The No. 1 concern of Republican voters is election integrity and voter ID. Our caucus assures that we have these common sense safeguards, and that’s why it’s supported by the vast majority of Republicans.”
But Amy Tarkanian, a Republican strategist who chaired the Nevada GOP from June 2011 through February 2012, believes the caucus structure favors former President Donald Trump, the undisputed frontrunner to clinch the party’s presidential nomination.
“A caucus will wholeheartedly benefit an incumbent who already has infrastructure and a base,” said Tarkanian, who was ostracized by the party after endorsing two Democrats ahead of last year’s midterms. “You’re going to have to have individuals, who usually are the diehards who will set the time aside to participate in something like this. It’s only a one-day process. It’s not just an in-and-out thing.”
Tarkanian also sits on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Participatory Democracy, which aids the state’s top election official in identifying and proposing programs that promote citizen participation in governance. She said tools like early voting and universal mail ballots provided ways to involve more of the electorate, which she contended was stronger for democracy.
“Having all mail-in ballots makes it a lot easier for those who may be sick or elderly who struggle with transportation, or for those who might be a single parent working multiple jobs,” Tarkanian said. “That’s not going to work for a caucus.”
If for whatever reason multiple candidates register for the primary, and not the caucus, Republicans run the risk of confusing voters en masse, Tarkanian said.
“You’re going to have a lot of confused individuals out there who are still going to receive that mail-in ballot whether they got the message or not from the NV GOP,” Tarkanian said. “If they want their vote to count, they’re gonna have to set time aside and go participate in the caucus. And if not, if they cast their mail ballot and they find out later that their vote wasn’t counted, I think you’re going to have a lot of very angry people.”
Tarkanian added the party’s timing announcing the caucus could have been a curveball to some of the presidential campaigns.
Asked whether presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would participate in the caucus or primary, his campaign communications director Andrew Romeo told the Sun: “We’re exploring all options in Nevada to best position Ron DeSantis to be the next president.”
Zachery Henry, a spokesman for GOP businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign, issued similar sentiment.
“We’re playing to win,” Henry said. “We’re going where the delegates are, and right now it sounds like that’s going to be the caucus.”
The Sun also reached out to the campaigns of Trump, as well as South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, but those camps did not respond in time for publication of this article.
What’s next?
For Republicans and Democrats alike, Nevada is near the top of the nation’s nominating schedule, behind only New Hampshire (which requires its primary to be set in January), and the Iowa Republican Caucus scheduled Jan. 15, 2024, and the South Carolina Democratic Primary Feb. 3. But a rocky Republican caucus could jeopardize Nevada’s standing in the future, Tarkanian said.
“I think you’re gonna see candidates not take us seriously,” Tarkanian said. “Especially now that they’re left to scramble last-minute to put together a caucus team, which is completely different from a primary team.”
Projections from the secretary of state’s office as AB 126 was working through the lawmaking process figured it would cost the state roughly $5.2 million to conduct a presidential preference primary. Candidates have from Oct. 2 until Oct. 16 to file for the presidential preference primary, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The Nevada GOP, meanwhile, is giving candidates from Sept. 1 through Oct. 15 to pledge to the caucus.
Conducting a caucus isn’t nearly as expensive as a whole-state primary, Tarkanian said, but current chair Michael McDonald and the Nevada GOP will have work cut out for them to raise the funds and organize the logistics necessary for organizing a caucus just six months out.
“It’s going to take several hundreds of thousands of dollars if he (McDonald) wants it to be successful,” Tarkanian said. “He’s going to have to rent out locations, he’s going to have to print out ballots. … It was a struggle to get everyone on the same page.”
