North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is hanging in there. Instead of eyeing the exit to the Republican presidential primary race, his campaign has forged ahead and filed for a special caucus being held by the Nevada Republican Party.

We look forward to being on the ballot in Nevada in 2024! https://t.co/5GC1OqxZB4

— Doug Burgum (Text "DOUG" to 70177) (@DougBurgum) October 11, 2023

He filed for the New Hampshire primary the next day.

It’s official: @DougBurgum files for the #FITN New Hampshire primary #NHPolitics #WMUR pic.twitter.com/i4u3OVSJnQ

— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR) October 12, 2023

You would think that a governor with such little name recognition at this stage of the primary process and polls at the bottom of the list would be thinking about leaving the race. But, no. Burgum is in it, at least through Nevada, so far.

Nevada is mixing things up a bit this time around. The state GOP will hold its own caucus and only honor the results of the caucus, not the state’s primary. The Nevada Secretary of State will hold a Republican primary in early February but it is separate from the GOP caucus. A state law requires a primary if two or more candidates register for it. Burgum has chosen to run in the caucus. Candidates are not allowed to enter both the caucus and the primary.

Former Vice President Pence is skipping the caucus and competing in the state-run primary. Critics say the caucus rules favor Trump.

Pence’s name appeared Thursday on a list of presidential candidates who filed for the primary with the Nevada secretary of state’s office. The party has barred candidates from participating in the Feb. 8 caucuses if they also run in the primary election.

Pence’s campaign did not respond to a message seeking an explanation about the decision.

By skipping the caucus, Pence gives up a chance to try to win Nevada’s relatively small number of delegates. Instead, a primary win could offer an opportunity to prove electability before crucial contests in South Carolina and a slate of primaries on Super Tuesday.

Nevada is number three to hold a nominating contest for Republicans in 2024. The presidential campaigns and some Nevada Republicans are worried that the state’s impact will be muddled after the local Republican Party made the decision to run its own caucuses two days after the state-run primary on February 6.

The decision to hold both a caucus and primary but only award delegates based on the caucuses isn’t the only rule change. The state party is restricting super PACs from trying to gather support for candidates in the caucuses. This certainly affects Ron DeSantis who has a strong super PAC, Never Back Down PAC, supporting him with organizing and advertising.

Sounds like the Nevada Republican Party wants Trump, doesn’t it? As Trump would say, it’s rigged. At least that is what it looks like to me.

Pence is the first to decide to skip the caucus. Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Doug Burgum have filed for the caucus.

Nevada isn’t the only state to have adopted rules seen as favoring Trump, whose team has worked for years to shape the system by which state Republican parties award delegates to presidential candidates.

Michigan and California have also passed rules this year that are seen to widely benefit Trump.

The former president has strong allies in top roles at the Nevada GOP, including McDonald and Republican National Committee member Jim DeGraffenreid. Both served as fake presidential electors in 2020 as part of a scheme in Nevada and other battleground states to try to overturn Trump’s election loss. The party’s executive director, Alida Benson, left that job this summer to run Trump’s campaign in the state.

I’ll just leave this here. The Burgum campaign may want to take a look at it.

Doug Burgam saw no name recognition improvement after announcing his 2024 presidential bid: 63% of potential primary voters have never heard of him, up 1 point from the week before. https://t.co/zpObC29kvJ pic.twitter.com/xPOYlRGZyI

— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) June 13, 2023