On Sunday, Nikki Haley won the Republican primary election in the District of Columbia (Washington, DC), achieving her first victory in the 2024 campaign.
Her victory temporarily halts Donald Trump’s sweep of the Republican Party vote, although the former president is likely to win several hundred more delegates in Super Tuesday races this week.
Despite her early loss, Haley said she would remain in the race at least through those contests, though she declined to name any primary she felt confident would win.
After last week’s loss in her home state of South Carolina, Haley remained adamant that voters in the following places deserve an alternative to Trump despite his dominance so far in the election campaign.
The Associated Press announced Haley’s victory on Sunday in the capital after Republican Party officials announced the results. Haley won all 19 D.C. delegates.
Washington is one of the most Democratic areas in the country, with only 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Democrat Joe Biden won the district in the 2020 general election with 92% of the vote.
Trump issued a statement on Sunday shortly after Haley’s victory, sarcastically congratulating her on “earning” the title “Queen of the Swamp” from lobbyists and insiders in the capital, who want to protect the failed status quo.
On Friday, Haley organized a massive march in Washington, D.C., before returning to North Carolina and a number of states holding primary elections on Super Tuesday.
“Whoever says there are no Republicans in D.C., so be it,” she joked with more than 100 supporters inside a hotel hall.
“We’re trying to make sure we’re touching every hand we can and talking to every person,” Haley said.
As she delivered her usual campaign speech, criticizing Trump for running the federal deficit, one rally participant shouted: “He can’t win the general election. He’s crazy.” That led to an endorsement from Haley, who says she can deny Biden a second term but Trump cannot.
Trump won the D.C. primary indisputably during his 2020 reelection bid, but finished third four years ago behind Sen. Marco Rubio and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Rubio’s win was one of only three victories in his failed 2016 bid. Other, more centrist Republicans, including Mitt Romney and John McCain, won primaries in the city in 2012 and 2008 on their way to winning the GOP nomination.
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