You've heard of "The Writing is on the Wall," and "The Fat Lady is Singing." Nikki Haley is far beyond those euphemisms. Haley is at the point where a two-by-four has smacked her upside the head and a loud, annoying voice is telling her to quit now when she can still show her face in public.
Haley garnered 30% of the Nevada primary vote. She outpolled Tim Scott and Mike Pence — neither of whom are still in the race.
But "none of these candidates" received 62.9% of the vote, marking the third time in Nevada history that the "none of these candidates" came away with a win. In 1975 and 1978, the "none of these candidates" line won congressional primaries while in 1980, the line beat both George Bush on the Republican side and Ted Kennedy on the Democratic side, although the winners were Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.
Nevada scheduled both a primary and a caucus this year. The primary was essentially a "beauty contest" that was meaningless in the race for delegates. Voters will choose Nevada's delegates on Thursday during the state caucuses. Donald Trump is expected to win all 26 of Nevada's delegates when the caucuses conclude.
“If your goal is to win the Republican nomination for president, you go where the delegates are. And it baffles me that Nikki Haley chose not to participate,” Trump’s senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said in an interview before the primary.
Haley declined to compete in Iowa. She didn't further her cause by claiming that those caucuses were "rigged."
“Even Donald Trump knows that when you play penny slots the house wins,” spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said. “We didn’t bother to play a game rigged for Trump. We’re full steam ahead in South Carolina and beyond.” Haley had said she was going to “focus on the states that are fair.”
That angered Republican Party regulars and activists, and they threw the insult back at Haley.
Washoe County Republican Party Chair Bruce Parks, who pushed for the GOP to hold caucuses, said that he told voters who called his office — and Trump supporters — to participate in the primary by voting for “none of these candidates” over Haley.
“They basically told us they don’t care about us,” Parks said in an interview after the race was called. “By marking ‘none of these candidates,’ we respond in kind — we don’t care about you either.”
Why is Haley willing to take this kind of humiliation? Why is she sticking around?
Haley's only chance to win is if Trump loses his appeal to appear on the Colorado Republican primary ballot. If the Supreme Court rules against Trump and upholds the 14th Amendment challenge from Democrats, many blue states will likely follow suit.
That may — just may — change the GOP primary dynamic. Polls have already shown that Trump will lose a considerable amount of support if he's convicted of a felony. It's not a question of whether to believe the polls. It's the perception that matters. When the highest court in the land says straight out that Trump is an insurrectionist, it could change the perception of Trump for many voters.
In other words, Haley is still in the race because she's hoping for a miracle — and not a likely one at that.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member