She beats Donald Trump in Republican primary in Washington DC
Our Bureau
Washington, DC
Nikki Haley, the Indian American and a former US ambassador to the UN, won Washington DC primary. However, Trump has won the first eight nominating contests by significant margins before losing to Haley in America’s capital city. Haley clinched 62.9% of the vote, to Mr Trump’s 33.2%. Haley will pick up 19 delegates from this win, a small portion of the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
Washington DC is 100% urban and a relatively high proportion of residents hold a college degree. The city is home to a significant number of federal workers who Trump allies have pledged to fire en masse and replace with loyalists if he wins in November. Some categories of federal workers have seen an increase in death threats in recent years, and Trump often refers to the DC area as the “swamp.”
Ms Haley’s campaign national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said: “it’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos”.
Trump attacked and mocked Haley after Sunday’s result on his Truth Social platform, posting: “I purposely stayed away from the D.C. Vote because it is the ‘Swamp,’ with very few delegates, and no upside. Birdbrain spent all of her time, money and effort there. Over the weekend we won Missouri, Idaho, and Michigan – BIG NUMBERS – Complete destruction of a very weak opponent. The really big numbers will come on Super Tuesday.”
According to BBC, it is seen as a largely symbolic win, as the capital is a heavily Democrat-leaning jurisdiction, with only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city. Local party officials said 2,035 Republicans participated in the primary, as reported by the Washington Post.
Mr Trump has dominated every state primary or caucus so far in the Republican campaign and is poised to win more delegates this week, on Super Tuesday, when voters in 15 states and one US territory will nominate their candidate. It is the biggest day of nominating contests, with 874 Republican delegates’ support at stake.
