Dem
51
GOP
49
Well, it's one of the days for Nevada, at least, as voters there will cast their ballots in the state's primaries. Ultimately, the day is somewhat meaningless, as the results are already known. On the Republican side, Nikki Haley will get zero delegates, since the Republicans chose to award their delegates this year via a caucus, which will be held on Thursday. And on the Democratic side, Joe Biden will get all 36 delegates, since he has no serious competition.
With that said, there are a couple of things to watch for, at least if you squint hard. On the Republican side, Haley cannot lose to Donald Trump, since he's not on the ballot. However, she is up against Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who qualified for the ballot before suspending their campaigns. It would be pretty embarrassing for either of them to be competitive with her, although that is somewhat unlikely. Considerably more likely is an outcome made possible by a quirky element of Nevada election law: Haley could lose to "none of these candidates." The Haley campaign is already bracing for this possibility by reminding everyone that the candidate has spent no time or money in Nevada, because she decided not to "participate in a process that was rigged for Trump."
Meanwhile, the other (small) thing to watch for is how fully Biden crushes his competition. He took 96% of the vote in South Carolina, and he may do better than that in Nevada, since one of his nominal "challengers," Dean Phillips, botched the paperwork and did not make the ballot. On the other hand, there are 11 non-Marianne-Williamson candidates who weren't on the ballot in South Carolina, including one named Superpayaseria Crystalroc. So, if Nevadans are looking to cast a protest vote, they'll have a lot more options than in the Palmetto State.
Anyhow, we'll have an item on it tomorrow, even if the whole thing is kind of a waste of time and money. Who knows what we'll do, in terms of writing something interesting, once we get to primaries where all the little fish have finally seen the light and dropped out. (Z)