Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley defeated former US President Donald Trump in the Republican primary in Washington, DC.
Her victory over the former president was the first in the 2024 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Haley lost in her home state of South Carolina, but she became the first woman to win a Republican primary in US history.
According to the BBC, Trump has a significant lead over Haley and will most certainly face Joe Biden in the November election.
According to CBS, Haley will earn all 19 Republican delegates up for grabs in Washington DC, giving her 43 delegates nationwide, trailing Trump’s 247.
Haley, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, received 62.9% of the votes to Trump’s 33.2%.
It is viewed as a purely symbolic victory, as the capital is a heavily Democratic jurisdiction with only roughly 23,000 registered Republicans in the city.
According to local party officials, 2,035 Republicans voted in the primary, the Washington Post reported.
Olivia Perez-Cubas, Haley’s campaign national spokesperson, stated, “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all of his chaos”.
The Trump campaign, on the other hand, was eager to downplay Haley’s victory, labeling her the “Queen of the Swamp”.
“While Nikki has been overwhelmingly rejected throughout the rest of America, she has just been crowned Queen of the Swamp by lobbyists and DC insiders who want to maintain the broken status quo. “The swamp has claimed their queen,” Trump Campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated.
Trump has dominated every state primary or caucus so far in the Republican campaign, and he is expected to gain additional delegates this week, on Super Tuesday, when voters in 15 states and one US territory will pick their candidate. It is the most important day of nomination contests, with 874 Republican delegates’ votes at stake.
Haley has vowed to remain in the race until at least March 5, when thousands of people will vote on Super Tuesday.