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Why Nevada has both a primary election and Republican caucus next week

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Why Nevada has both a primary election and Republican caucus next week


One of the more unusual presidential contests will take place in Nevada next week when the state’s Republican Party holds a caucus on Feb. 8 — just two days after the state has its primary election.

The reason there will be two contests next week is because Republicans in the state aren’t happy with somewhat-recent changes to Nevada election laws.

In 2021, the state’s Democratic governor at the time, Steve Sisolak, signed a slew of bills into law creating all-mail elections, expanding voter registration and moving the state-run presidential contest to a primary.

A caucus is a more restrictive voting system than a primary. A caucus requires voters to show up on a specific day at a specific time to cast a ballot, which can make it harder for shift workers and people with small children, for example, to vote. That small voting window can also make caucus turnout pretty unpredictable.

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Nevada Democrats, in particular, began urging state lawmakers to move away from its caucus system to a primary system after the 2020 election. Voting access and higher voter participation were key arguments behind the effort.

Once the effort was successful, Republicans in the state began pushing back.

At first, the party filed a lawsuit arguing that the state’s new laws infringed on its right to decide how to choose and bind the party’s delegates in a presidential nominating contest. A court eventually found that the party would be unlikely to stop the state from moving to a primary system. It also ruled, though, that the party couldn’t be bound by the state’s laws when it comes to how it picks delegates.

So the Nevada GOP decided to drop the lawsuit and set up its own caucus to choose delegates. While Nevada holds its primaries on Feb. 6, the GOP caucus will be held Feb. 8.

The Nevada Republican Party said in a statement it was affirming “its commitment to transparent elections with common-sense safeguards such as Voter ID, paper ballots, and precinct-based balloting” in its caucus.

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And as part of the party’s “protest” of the state-run primaries, members also made a rule that any presidential candidate participating in the primary cannot run in the caucus and is therefore unable to win any Nevada delegates for the presidential nomination. This is why former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will appear on the GOP presidential primary ballot, but won’t be on the caucus ballot.

Only former President Donald Trump and Texas businessman Ryan Binkley, who’s mounting a longshot bid, remain on the ballot in the Nevada GOP caucus — a setup that all but ensures Trump wins the delegate haul. (The state Republican chair has told people to caucus for Trump.)

“This protest is designed to ensure no Republican candidates for President register for the state run election,” party officials said in a statement, “negating the need for the same and saving the State of Nevada millions of taxpayer dollars.”

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

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AFP via Getty Images

Nevada Republican Party Chair Michael J. McDonald speaks at a Trump rally Saturday in Las Vegas.

But this protest from the GOP has left its voters with a confusing pair of elections to vote in.

A spokesperson for the Nevada secretary of state’s office said they have been hearing from voters who have questions about the primary and caucus.

“It’s been a top issue we’ve received questions on in the last month,” the spokesperson told NPR in a statement. “Specifically, we are receiving questions about why former President Trump is not on the primary ballot.”

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The secretary’s office has said they are directing voters to the Nevada Republican Party when they have questions about the caucus.

And party officials have been defending their move.

“The caucus is the traditional way we have chosen our presidential nominee for decades,” the party says on aninformation sheet for its voters. “Contrary to reports that the NVGOP is trying to confuse Nevada Republican voters, the truth is that the 2024 primary is an all new, very expensive, and meaningless process.”

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Nevada

State offices on two hour delay due to weather conditions

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State offices on two hour delay due to weather conditions


RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – State offices in Nevada are on a two hour delay due to winter weather.

The opening of state offices in Carson City, Douglas, Storey, and Washoe Counties was delayed by two hours Thursday morning.

Heavy snowfall and high winds are creating hazardous driving conditions around northern Nevada.

State offices will open at 10:00 a.m.

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Clark County’s Rebecca Place aims to expand homeownership opportunities in Southern Nevada

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Clark County’s Rebecca Place aims to expand homeownership opportunities in Southern Nevada


For Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, the groundbreaking for Rebecca Place marked a moment she said nearly brought her to tears — a sign, she believes, that more Southern Nevadans could soon have a realistic path to owning a home.

“I always think that if you want to own a home, you should have an opportunity, and I run into so many people, ‘You know what, I don’t think I can get there.’ Now, I run into people who say, ‘I think I can get there,’” Kirkpatrick said.

Rebecca Place is a 30-home development planned near Rebecca Road and West Tropical Parkway. The homes are estimated to cost around $300,000, far below the recent median price for single-family homes of $470,000, according to Las Vegas Realtors.

The project is aimed at what officials describe as the “missing middle” — families who make too much to qualify for low-income housing but still struggle to afford higher-priced homes.

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Homebuyers at Rebecca Place will be limited to households earning between $68,000 and $85,000 per year.

“We love to call it attainable housing because we think their salary should have them attain homeownership,” Kirkpatrick said.

The development is expected to be the first in Nevada built through a community land trust, or CLT. Under the model, the land is owned by the community while the home is owned by the individual, who also pays a ground lease. When the home is resold, it cannot be sold for market price — a restriction the county says is designed to keep the home affordable for the next buyer.

During a visit to the site in the early stages of development, Shannon Mitchell, a nurse who was at a park across the street, said housing costs have become out of reach for younger adults.

“It’s not affordable for my children, 22 to25 years old. They’re paying more rent than what I pay for more my mortgage,” Mitchell said.

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Mitchell said she supports the concept and the opportunities it could create. “That’s a good idea for the county, a good idea for opportunities for the families in between,” she said. The project could be in place by late summer.

Some residents have raised concerns about how the development could affect home values. The county said the homes cannot be sold for market value, so they should be assessed accordingly.

Kirkpatrick said the project is meant to offer long-term stability for families who may be able to move in by the end of the year.

“Kids today can’t see the forest through the trees on maybe ever owning a home. This has a piece in it. You can pass it down to your family,” she said.



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Nevada sues Kalshi to block company’s prediction market operation in state

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Nevada sues Kalshi to block company’s prediction market operation in state


Nevada gaming regulators filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block the prediction market operator Kalshi from offering events contracts that would allow its residents to bet on sports including football and basketball games.

The Nevada gaming control board filed the lawsuit as part of an escalating battle over the ability of state gaming regulators nationally to police companies like Kalshi that allow users to place financial bets through their prediction markets.

It sued on the same day that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a brief in related litigation threw its support behind companies like Kalshi by arguing it had exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. Kalshi had sought for months to prevent Nevada regulators from filing a case against it. But a federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to put on hold a judge’s November order dissolving an injunction that had previously prevented Nevada authorities from pursuing an enforcement action. Should Nevada prevail, it would become the second state to secure a court order blocking Kalshi from offering sports events contracts, after a Massachusetts judge on 5 February issued an injunction at the behest of the state’s attorney general.

That injunction was set to take effect in 30 days, but a state appeals court justice on Tuesday put it on hold while Kalshi appeals.

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Nevada in Tuesday’s lawsuit contends that offering sports event contracts, or certain other event contracts, constitutes wagering activity under Nevada state law and that, as a result, Kalshi must be licensed.

It said Kalshi had not complied with state gaming regulations, including those prohibiting anyone under 21 from placing wagers and requiring entities accepting wagers on sports events to deploy safeguards against wagers by insiders like players and match-fixing.

The state has already convinced judges to issue orders barring two other prediction market operators, Coinbase and Polymarket, from offering events contracts. Nevada is seeking to have a state court judge issue a similar temporary restraining order against Kalshi, but the company soon after Tuesday’s case was filed sought to have it transferred to federal court, saying the case raised a matter of law over whether it was subject to the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction.

The New York-based company contends the federal regulator has sole jurisdiction over its events contracts as they are a form of swaps, a type of derivative contract.



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