DrDonald Trump won the so-called electoral caucus in the US state of Nevada, taking another step towards running for the presidency for the Republican Party. According to preliminary results, it was clear that Trump was ahead on Thursday (local time). American media reported that Trump would win the state's delegate votes.
The state primary elections were already held in Nevada on Tuesday. Trump's only remaining party rival, Nikki Haley, came in second place behind „none of these candidates.” However, Tuesday's result did not matter: The Nevada Republican Party had previously announced that it would ignore the primary and hold its own caucus instead.
Delegate votes are important for party conventions, where party candidates are formally nominated. Trump is the most likely candidate in the race to win the Republican Party's presidential nomination.
A caucus was also held Thursday in the US Virgin Islands, where Trump also won. Although the US Virgin Islands will not have a say in the presidential election scheduled for November, the US territory will play a role in determining the presidential candidates.
The US Supreme Court questions Trump's exclusion from the Colorado primary
On Thursday, the majority of nine justices on the US Supreme Court expressed doubts about excluding Trump from running for president again. During the two-hour hearing, both conservative and liberal justices expressed concerns that individual states could decide which candidates run for president in November.
The hearing before the Supreme Court in Washington discussed whether Trump is unelectable in the US state of Colorado because of his role in the storming of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 – or whether his name could appear on the ballot in the primaries there.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last December that Trump would not be allowed to vote in the Republican Party's presidential nomination in the state because of his role in storming the Capitol building. This was justified under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. So Trump's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court.
Jonathan Mitchell, former deputy attorney general of Texas and Trump's representative, opened the 80-minute hearing at the Supreme Court on Thursday, stressing that only the US Congress can disqualify any nominee. The Colorado Supreme Court's decision was „wrong and should be overturned.” It „takes away the votes of tens of millions of potential Americans.”