President Joe Biden won tonight's Nevada primary, the third stop in the internal presidential election. The president easily defeated eleven candidates who contested his candidacy. The best-known of her rivals is Marianne Williamson, a self-help author who was once a spiritual advisor to Oprah Winfrey. This afternoon he received 88% of the vote. With his victory this Tuesday, Biden gains 36 delegates, putting him at 91 in the race for 1,968 delegates. The next stop for the 81-year-old politician is the Michigan primary election on February 27th.
Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate, was defeated in a symbolic primary. The former South Carolina governor received 32% of the vote AND was surpassed by those who chose the “none of the previous candidates” option, who received 61%. His defeat is symbolic. The right-wing party will hold a caucus on Thursday to determine delegates for the presidential nomination. Haley decided to skip that state entirely to focus on the upcoming primaries, including South Carolina's and Super Tuesday, March 5.
This Tuesday, Biden defeated candidates with different pasts in the primaries. Among them are Stephen Lyons, a plumber from Maryland; Brent Foutz, who lost a local Senate election in 2020; Armando Pérez-Serrato, who also wanted to become governor of California in 2022 (he received 0.6% of the vote then); Mark Prascka, a Philadelphia-based filmmaker; Frankie Lozada, who campaigned in New York for a congressional seat in 2022; Financier Jason Palmer and Superpayaseria Crystalroc, a mysterious candidate from Idaho with an eyebrow-raising name and no internet presence.
To seek a delegate, candidates had to receive at least 15% of the vote at the state level. Only Biden has cleared that hurdle in a state with 2.3 million voters. Almost nine out of ten of them live in the two most densely populated areas of Nevada, Las Vegas and Reno. The party's primary included anyone who registered in the Democratic Party's census. That's 31%. The Republicans have 28%, the independents have around 34%. Nevada law allows for some flexibility in the process, allowing for same-day registration and even intra-party registration changes on Election Day.
Biden arrived in Nevada on Sunday for two days of campaigning. During his short visit, he made it clear that he was not asking for the vote this Tuesday, but that he was already focused on the autumn battle. At a fundraiser in the city of Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas, the president reviewed the errors and errors of who will surely be his rival in November's election: Donald Trump. In a closed event, Biden recalled how Trump called those charged in the attack on the Capitol hostages, his mockery of dead veterans and soldiers and his desire to become a “dictator” if he becomes white House returned house. .
“Imagine what a nightmare a second Trump administration would be,” Biden said at a rally in a black neighborhood in Las Vegas on Sunday evening. “You are the reason we will make Donald Trump a loser again,” added the president, one of his strongest constituencies.
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Biden attended a Tourism Workers Union event on Monday. The hotel industry was key to Biden's 2020 victory, taking Nevada by less than 3% over Trump. Maintaining his support will be crucial for Democrats in the fall elections. “I have come to thank you for the support you have given me and for the support I hope you will give me. And thank you for your trust in the unions,” Biden assured members of an organization that represents 60,000 casino and hotel workers on the famous Strip. Unions reached an agreement with employers this week that prevented a midweek strike as the city hosts the Super Bowl, the American football final.
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