CV NEWS FEED // Ambassador Nikki Haley won her first 2024 Republican nomination contest this weekend, with a victory in the District of Columbia (DC) primary.
Haley came out on top with 62.86% of the vote, compared to 33.22% for former President Donald Trump, who is likely to become the Republican nominee for the third consecutive election cycle.
Only a total of 2,035 voters took part in the primary in a city dominated by the Democratic Party. In the 2020 election, now-President Joe Biden carried it with over 92% of the vote.
Just five percent of Washington, DC voters are registered Republicans. The same percentage of its voters backed then-incumbent President Trump in 2020.
In addition, over one out of five DC residents work for the federal government. Federal workers have long been considered a solidly Democratic voting bloc.
Haley’s nearly-30-point win in the nation’s capital comes after Trump prevailed in contests in seven states – many by larger margins.
Of these contests, the one in which Haley came the closest to winning was in New Hampshire. Despite pouring substantial sums of money into the state, she still lost its January 23 primary by double digits.
Late last month, Haley failed to win the primary vote in her home state of South Carolina by just over 20 points. She had served as the state’s governor for six years.
Haley spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas hailed the DC win on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “This makes Nikki Haley the first woman to win a Republican primary in U.S. history.”
Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back, writing that the results “reaffirm” that Trump “will drain the swamp and put America first.”
“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” Leavitt continued on X. “The swamp has claimed their queen. President Trump will fight for every American who is being let down by these very DC insiders and devastated by Joe Biden’s failures.”
With DC in her column, Haley picked up all 19 of the capital’s delegates. The former Trump administration official now has a modest total of 43, dwarfed by Trump’s 244.
For a candidate to win the 2024 Republican nomination, he or she must amass 1,215 delegates.
The Daily Wire reported that “Trump will likely come close to clinching the Republican Party nomination after the Super Tuesday states vote this week.”
“The Super Tuesday states include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia,” The Daily Wire indicated.
A total of 895 delegates will be at stake during the day’s 15 nominating contests.
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