Nikki Haley cruises to victory in District of Columbia GOP primary

U.S. Ambassador Gov. Nikki Haley won her first Republican primary Saturday night, a milestone achievement for the former South Carolina governor who has been facing an uphill battle against former President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press declared Haley the winner of District of Columbia's 2024 GOP presidential primary after the local party released the results.

Haley's victory was her first of the 2024 presidential primary season, which Trump was previously dominating as an undefeated candidate.

But Haley has now picked up 19 delegates, breaking Trump’s record. Analysts suspect her recent victory is unlikely may not be enough to stop Trump's ability to secure the Republican nomination, but there are many states remaining in the primary.

According to the District’s GOP, 2,035 Republicans participated in the primary.

Haley campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said the former U.N. ambassador is the first woman to win a Republican primary in American history.

“It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Perez-Cubas said in a statement released to the public.

In 2020, Trump also lost the District of Columbia primary to then-candidate Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. 

Trump did not campaign in the nation’s capital before the primary on Friday, but Haley did. 

Political analysts will now keep a close eye on other states this Super Tuesday, and in centrist states to see if Haley’s victory was an anomaly or if she can repeat her performance in D.C.

While Haley lost those early races to Trump, she has vowed to stay in the race through Super Tuesday and has neglected to call which primaries she believes she could win. She says has remained determined to stay in the race to give Republican voters alternate choice to Trump.

Almost immediately after the race was called for Haley, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt mocked Haley and D.C. Republicans by echoing Trump’s constant claims that the capital city is a “swamp” full of establishment Republicans.

“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and D.C. insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Despite serving in the White House for four years and having the support of many Congressional Republicans, Trump has said that establishment Republicans in D.C. are against him.

“According to the D.C. GOP, the weekend election was held at “the earliest possible time under party rules,” wrote the Washington Post. “A Republican primary in D.C. in June — when Democrats will hold their own primary — would have violated the national GOP’s rules, which prohibit primaries meant to allocate delegates to the Republican National Convention less than 45 days before the convention is held on July 15. This means party chapters have to hold their primaries by May 31.”

Haley was not in Washington on Sunday to celebrate because she was campaigning in Maine, a Super Tuesday state. She received the endorsement of longtime Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) on Friday.