Nikki Haley gets first primary win in Washington DC, with Super Tuesday ahead
- Former UN ambassador bests Donald Trump in the District of Columbia, in a small symbolic boost
- She still faces near-impossible odds in her quest to win the Republican nomination to take on Joe Biden
Nikki Haley won the Republican primary in the District of Columbia Sunday, giving her the first victory in the nominating contests of 2024 and slowing Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination.
Haley won the district 63 per cent to 33 per cent, according to the Associated Press.
In winning the 19 delegates from the nation’s capital, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations nearly doubled her voting strength at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
But her 43 delegates still trail the former president, who won the first nine contests and has amassed 244 delegates.
North Dakota will vote on Monday before the 15-state Super Tuesday contests the next day that will award 36 per cent of all Republican delegates. Those states are mostly favourable to Trump, with winner-take-all contests likely to allow him to amass delegates quickly.
Washington is the most Democratic jurisdiction in the country, with only 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Only about 2,000 of them voted in a primary conducted over two days at a single polling location.