Nikki Haley clinches first 2024 victory in Republican primary
Nikki Haley has won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, notching her first victory of the 2024 campaign.
Her win on Sunday at least temporarily halts Donald Trump’s clean sweep of primary votes, though the former president is likely to pick up several hundred more delegates in this week’s Super Tuesday races.
Despite her early losses, Haley has said she would remain in the race at least through those contests. She has declined to name any primary she felt confident she would win, however.
Following her loss in South Carolina - her home state - the former UN Ambassador said that Republican voters deserved an alternative to Trump despite his dominance so far in the campaign.
The Associated Press declared Haley the winner Sunday night after D.C. Republican Party officials released the results. She won all 19 delegates at stake.
“It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement.
She noted that Haley was the first woman to win a Republican primary in history.
Washington is one of the most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the nation, with only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city.
Democrat Joe Biden won the district in the 2020 general election with 92% of the vote.
Trump's campaign issued a statement shortly after Haley’s victory sarcastically congratulating her on being named “Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo.”