This week, it’s Nevada Republicans’ turn to choose their party’s presidential nominee. The process is simple. On Tuesday, they go to the polls and vote for a candidate. Oh, except the candidate most of them want, Donald Trump, will not be on the ballot, which has led to mass confusion.

Nikki Haley will be on the ballot, though. So will “none of the above.” Oh, and there are no delegates at stake in this primary. To have their votes matter, Nevada Republicans will have to participate in Thursday’s party-run caucus, in which Trump will be an option but Haley won’t.

Got all that?

“Meltdown” is never what a state has in mind as it tries to create a sensible means of selecting a presidential nominee. But over the course of the past few years, a series of feet stepped on a series of rakes, and here we are. Now, there’s a baffling split between a MAGA-controlled caucus and a separate primary exhibition match. But even though neither contest will feature both remaining contenders, the results could still be important in how they frame the race going forward.

The story of Nevada’s primary confusion begins with a previous early-voting state screw-up. After the tech debacle that was the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucus, other states long hoping to oust Iowa as the nation’s first nominating contest made their move. At the urging of, among others, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose advocacy for Nevada to vote first was a legacy project, the state in 2021 passed a law switching the nominating contests from caucuses to state-run primaries to be held on the first Tuesday in February of a presidential election year.

Team Trump, however, still preferred a party-run caucus to a state-run primary.........

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