Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley had her first victory in the primary contests against former Donald Trump amid their efforts to secure the Republican Party’s ticket for the 2024 presidential election.
The Associated Press declared the GOP presidential candidate a winner on Sunday after she won all the 19 delegates up for grabs in the District of Columbia.
Nikki Haley has won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, halting Donald Trump's sweep of the GOP voting contests. She received all 19 delegates at stake.https://t.co/lEoHzULeuT
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 4, 2024
Before then, she had only managed to secure 24 delegates nationwide with no wins while her rival, former President Donald Trump had garnered 244, of which 122 was from Saturday. Now, the former U.N. ambassador’s tally stands at 43.
Haley’s campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas pointed out how her victory makes her the first female candidate to win a Republican presidential primary contest in the history of the United States.
It also marks the first loss for Trump, who had won every Republican primary contest by a healthy margin since the one in Iowa on Jan. 15 in which he won 51% of the votes and secured 20 of the 40 delegates at stake. Haley had 19.1% of the votes and secured 8 delegates.
Trump downplayed his first loss and Haley’s first win in a statement on Sunday night in which he sent Haley a sarcastic congratulation on being named “Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo.”
A day before, Trump swept through the caucuses in Missouri, Idaho and Michigan in which he gathered a total of 122 delegates.
Haley’s win in Washington, D.C. has been attributed to the district’s heavy Democratic leanings, as it is reportedly the most heavily Democratic region in the U.S. Trump only won the district in 2020 when he ran uncontested on the primary level. In the 2016 primary, he had less votes than Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich,
Next on the Republican calendar is Super Tuesday on March 5 when 16 states will hold their primaries and 874 delegates will be up for grabs.
So far, Trump seems to be closer to locking up the party’s nomination as a candidate is required to secure 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates.