Donald Trump has easy win in Nevada caucus

Early results showed the former president had massively out-polled his long-shot challenger Ryan Binkley, a businessman from Texas.

Nikki Haley speaks to the American Legion in Los Angeles. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has strolled to victory in the Nevada caucus, adding more delegates in his seemingly unstoppable march to the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Mr Trump was the only major candidate on the ballot when party members gathered on Thursday (Friday AEDT) in public buildings across the southwestern US state to cast their in-person votes.

Early results showed the former president had massively out-polled his long-shot challenger Ryan Binkley, a businessman from Texas, and major US networks said Mr Trump would scoop the state’s available delegates.

It was the second go around in presidential preference voting for Nevada this week. State-organised primary polls were held on Tuesday in which Nikki Haley was beaten into second place on the Republican ballot by “None of these candidates” – widely seen as a proxy vote for Mr Trump.

That result, however, was meaningless, with Nevada’s GOP declaring months ago it would award its delegates from Thursday’s rival caucus, a format that strongly favours Mr Trump.

Ms Haley badly trails Mr Trump in the overall race for the nomination, and is on course for another drubbing in her home state of South Carolina later this month.

The former UN ambassador insisted on Wednesday that she was not dropping out. “I’m in this for the long haul,” she told supporters at a campaign event in California on Wednesday night, according to The New York Times. “This is going to be messy, and this going to hurt, and it’s going to leave some bruises, but at the end of the day, I don’t mind taking them, if you will go right along with me.”

Mr Trump on Thursday said he thought her continued candidacy was not a good idea, but it didn’t bother him. “I don’t know why she continues but let her continue,” he said. “I don’t really care. I think it’s bad for the party. I think it’s actually bad for her.”

Republicans in the US Virgin Islands were also caucusing on Thursday. Although it is not a state and will not get a say in November’s presidential election, the territory does play a part in deciding presidential nominees.

Mr Trump won the party vote by a margin of three to one over Ms Haley, giving him all available delegates for the July 15-18 Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, which will decide the nominee.

Nevada’s split caucus-and-primary system this year came about as the result of a battle between the state’s Republicans and Democrats over whether to shift the state away from a caucus system.

The state legislature passed a law doing so which was signed by the Governor, but after a court battle the Republicans decided to hold their own unsanctioned ­caucus and award the state’s delegates to the convention to the victor of that contest.

Ms Haley declined to participate, calling the process “rigged” in Mr Trump’s favour.

AFP