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The Republican South Carolina and Michigan Primaries and How to Lose to Nobody

It looks like Donald Trump got exactly what he wanted in the Nevada caucus/primary shambles. For one he got to run basically unopposed and sweep up all the delegates while Haley managed to lose to nobody AKA “None of the above”. So Trump can outright claim a victory there.

Despite the embarrasing outcome for Haley she still seems to be pushing forwards despite it being increasingly obvious that it is basically over at this point. I mean if losing to the ‘None of the above’ option is not enough of a wake up call to stop wasting money on a fruitless campaign then I don’t know what is.

Clearly she is still hoping to pull out a shock win in South Carolina – having some degree of popularity there due to having formerly been its Governor – but polls suggest that it isn’t going to happen.

I would think that after the South Carolina primary tomorrow if Haley loses again, which she almost certainly will, she must surely suspend her campaign at that point – but failing that perhaps she decides to hold on until the results of Super Tuesday? But that really is pushing it with no signs at this point that she has any chance of beating Trump, if anything it will just be more wasted time and money. As it stands Trump maintains an average 30 point lead in South Carolina over Haley, so for Haley to win there would need to be some major error in all those polls.

And it does not get any better for Haley looking forward – after South Carolina is the Republican Michigan Primary on Monday where Trump has a more than 60-point average lead. Oh, and did I also mention there are more shambles? Michigan is not only having a Republican primary but also a Republican caucus… oh for goodness sake, well let’s look into what happened this time:

At first glance it sounds like a repeat of the Nevada shambles, but there is a difference, both the primary and caucus will award delegates and both can be registered to by the candidates (they are not limited to one or the other). The reason for this happening is the signing of state legislation in Michigan that moved the date of Democratic and Republican primaries in the state to 27th February, in line with the DNC’s state reorganisation plan.

But the date this falls on violates the Republican Party’s rule 16(c)(1), that does not allow any state or territory (apart from Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina) from holding their primary/caucus until 1st March. So the Republican Party and the RNC came to a ‘compromise’ where they will split the delegates up among the state government-organised primary and the Republican party will organise caucuses in Michigan for 2nd March to give the rest of the delegates – 16 delegates will be awarded in the 27th February primary while the other 39 delegates will be awarded in the caucuses on 2nd March.

Will this crazy ride ever end? In other news Trump won the Republican US Virgin Islands Caucus along with all its delegates (a single digit number mind you) but every little bit counts. So yeah… I don’t see an outcome where Trump does not become the Republicans nominee for president. But who knows, maybe something crazy happens that changes everything, we are still on that crazy ride after all seemingly.


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