After eschewing Arizona's Freedom Fest, former President Donald Trump is bringing the MAGA 2024 campaign tour to the Las Vegas strip.

Former President Trump will make a campaign stop in Las Vegas Saturday, just over a week before voters in Nevada cast their ballots in the state’s caucuses on Feb. 8.

Nevada will also hold its first-ever primary for Republicans and Democrats on Feb. 6.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the only major rival to Trump still in the race, opted to run in the primary, while the former president will be on the caucus ballot.

An interesting choice to make, particularly since in Nevada’s electoral system, the caucus is where the 26 delegates are awarded, and that is where Trump has chosen to compete. So, why would Haley opt to participate in the primary but not the caucus? According to one report, Haley didn't want to spend the money, possibly assuming that she would be competing against several candidates and not just Trump.

Haley — the second-most popular Republican candidate next to former President Donald Trump — is not participating in the Feb. 8 Nevada caucuses. Rather than pay the caucuses’ $55,000 fee, she opted in October to join the state-run presidential preference primary, though it means she will be awarded no Nevada delegates.

Her absence has frustrated her supporters in Nevada.

“There’s no point in participating in the caucus,” Fruit said. “I can’t vote for my candidate. They’re basically disenfranchising me. And this is happening by my own Republican party. I’m very unhappy about it.”

Someone needs to inform Mr. Fruit that Haley robbed him of that opportunity; the party decided on the system, the candidates understood this system, and Trump went for the interaction with the people and actual payoff, while Haley chose the traditional route. There's an analogy in there, somewhere. And from what the Nevada Republican Party has said, the Haley campaign has expressed zero interest in wooing Nevada voters.

Haley visited Las Vegas in October for the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit, an event that draws big Republican names every year, including the biggest presidential candidates.

Other than that event, she largely has avoided the Silver State this election cycle, choosing to focus on the Republican Party’s other early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald told the Review-Journal the state party has tried on multiple occasions to involve Haley’s campaign in the caucuses, but the party did not hear back.

“I thought the world of Nikki Haley before this process,” he said. “Her campaign blew us off. We realized that she wasn’t interested in working with Republicans in the state of Nevada.”

In Trump's New Hampshire victory speech last Tuesday, he alluded to another reason why Haley chose to ignore Nevada.

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Just remember... I did hear Nikki say, and now it's off to South Carolina. I love South Carolina. I love it. She forgot one thing. She forgot one thing. Next week, it's Nevada! It's Nevada, it's not South Carolina. We love South Carolina, but next week, it's Nevada. And I'm pleased to announce that we just won Nevada—We just won 100 percent. Because all of 'em, they looked at it, and they took polls, and I was polling at 95 percent to four or five percent, and they decided not to play in Nevada. 

So, the Trump campaign also relied on their polling to point them toward what definitely will be a sure victory. Neither contest has a competitor, so by default, Haley has won the primary. But Trump is the only one who gains. He leaves Nevada with what matters toward the Republican nomination: the actual delegates.

Again, there's an analogy in there, somewhere. So, with Nevada all sewn up, why is Trump bothering to hold a rally?

Because rallies are his secret sauce. Trump rises above the headlines and the indictment noise and connects with his voter base while also attracting new voters. Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips is for sure not going to win the Democrat nomination, but after his visit to a New Hampshire Trump rally, he may not even vote Democrat.

Just sayin'...

Trump rallies are the trademark of his campaigns, and he is often at his finest in them: unscripted and unfiltered. Gag orders or no, with the Southern Border showdown, the always-behind Nikki Haley, and a flailing and failing President Joe Biden, Trump has plenty of red meat to feed the crowds.

Rumble is streaming it live and they are good about keeping the archive. 

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