Photo: Reba Saldanha Associated Press Nikki Haley greeted supporters at a March 3 campaign event in Portland, Maine
Meg Kinnard – Associated Press and Will Weissert – Associated Press in Washington
March 3, 2024
- United States
Nikki Haley won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia, securing her first victory of the 2024 campaign.
His victory on Sunday temporarily halts Donald Trump's sweep in the race for the Republican nomination, although the former president is likely to recruit several hundred additional delegates in the “Super Tuesday” elections this week.
Despite her early defeats, Ms. Haley announced that she would remain in the race at least until the end of these races. However, she refused to name the primaries from which she expected to obtain an assured gain.
Following last week's defeat in her home state of South Carolina, Ms. Haley remained adamant that voters in the next states to vote deserved an option other than Trump, despite his dominance in the campaign so far.
The Associated Press announced Nikki Haley's victory Sunday evening after Washington Republican Party officials released the results. The candidate thus wins the 19 delegates at stake during this primary.
Washington is one of the most Democratic jurisdictions in the country, 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 issued a statement shortly after Haley's victory, sarcastically congratulating her for being named “Queen of the Swamp by DC lobbyists and insiders who want to protect the failing status quo.”
Nikki Haley held a rally in the nation's capital Friday before returning to North Carolina and a series of states holding Super Tuesday primaries. She joked with more than 100 supporters in a hotel ballroom: “Who says there aren’t Republicans in Washington, come on.”
“We try to make sure we shake every hand we can and talk to every person,” Ms. Haley said.
As she delivered her usual campaign speech, criticizing Trump for running up the federal deficit, a rally attendee yelled, “He can’t win a general election.” This is madness. » Nikki Haley agreed with him by saying that she can prevent Joe Biden from getting a second term, but that Trump cannot.
While campaigning as an avowed conservative, Ms. Haley tended to perform better among more moderate and independent voters.
Four out of ten Nikki Haley supporters in the South Carolina Republican primary called themselves moderates, compared to 15% for Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a poll of more than 2,400 voters participating in the Republican primary in South Carolina, conducted by the University of Chicago for the Associated Press. On the other hand, eight in ten Trump supporters identified as conservative, compared to about half of Ms. Haley's supporters.
Trump won an uncontested primary in Washington during his 2020 reelection campaign, but placed a distant third four years earlier behind Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Rubio's victory was one of only three in his unsuccessful 2016 bid. Other more centrist Republicans, including Mitt Romney and John McCain, won the city's primaries in 2012 and 2008, en route to the nomination of the Republican Party.