Nikki Haley, in First 2024 Victory, Wins the GOP Primary at the Columbia District
Her victory Sunday at least temporarily halts President Trump’s sweep of the GOP voting contests, although the front-runner is likely to pick up several hundred more delegates in this week’s Super Tuesday races.
WASHINGTON — Governor Haley has won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, notching her first victory of the 2024 campaign.
Her victory Sunday at least temporarily halts President Trump’s sweep of the GOP voting contests, although the front-runner is likely to pick up several hundred more delegates in this week’s Super Tuesday races.
Despite her early losses, Mrs. Haley has said she would remain in the race at least through those contests, although she has declined to name any primary she felt confident she would win.
Following last week’s loss in her home state of South Carolina, Mrs. Haley remained adamant that voters in the places that followed deserved an alternative to Mr. Trump despite his dominance thus far in the campaign.
The Associated Press declared Mrs. Haley the winner Sunday night after D.C. Republican Party officials released the results. She won all 19 delegates at stake.
Washington is one of the most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the nation, with only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. President Biden won the district in the 2020 general election with 92 percent of the vote.
Mr. Trump issued a statement shortly after Mrs. 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.”
Mrs. Haley held a rally in the nation’s capital on Friday before heading back to North Carolina and a series of states holding Super Tuesday primaries.
She joked with more than 100 supporters inside a hotel ballroom, “Who says there’s no Republicans in D.C., come on.”
“We’re trying to make sure that we touch every hand that we can and speak to every person,” Mrs. Haley said.
As she gave her standard campaign speech, criticizing Mr. Trump for running up federal deficit, one rallygoer bellowed, “He cannot win a general election. It’s madness.”
That prompted agreement from Mrs. Haley, who argues that she can deny Mr. Biden a second term but Mr. Trump can’t.
While campaigning as an avowed conservative, Mrs. Haley has tended to perform better among more moderate and independent-leaning voters.
