Nikki Haley won her first election in the U.S. Republican primaries, in which she is former President Donald Trump’s last remaining rival. The former UN Ambassador and Governor of South Carolina took 62.9% of the votes in Washington D.C., while Trump received 33.2%. It was a small consolation, however, for Haley compared to Trump’s victories in the first eight nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the Virgin Islands, South Carolina, Michigan, Idaho, and Missouri. According to opinion polls, Trump will also win all the primaries to be held across fifteen states on Tuesday, March 5th, an event known as Super Tuesday, paving the way for him to become the nominee for the Republican Party at the presidential elections in November.
Haley’s insignificant victory in Washington D.C. can be explained by the fact that the capital is a Democratic Party stronghold, where current President Joe Biden got 92% of the votes in the 2020 presidential election against Trump. The city, which has a population of around 690,000, only has 23,000 registered Republicans, most of whom are considered to be moderate conservatives. Trump has often referred to the capital as the ‘Swamp’ because it is home to a significant number of federal workers who represent the out-of-touch U.S. political elite. “I purposely stayed away from the D.C. Vote because it is the ‘Swamp’ with very few delegates, and no upside,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social platform.
His campaign team issued a statement shortly after Haley’s victory sarcastically congratulating her on being named “Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and D.C. insiders that want to protect the failed status quo.” They added: “Tonight’s results in Washington D.C. reaffirm the object of President Trump’s campaign—he will drain the swamp and put America first.”
Entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted: “The one primary she wins is where the swamp is the electorate. She’d really like to thank her core constituency of defense contractors, overpaid consultants, and the permanent political class.”
Nikki Haley has vowed to fight on and spent the weekend campaigning in the state of Maine. After her victory in Washington D.C., she tweeted: “Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past 8 years.”
