The ex-US president has brushed off Nikki Haley’s win, saying he purposely avoided campaigning in Washington DC
Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign event in Portland, Maine, March 3, 2024 © AP / Reba Saldanha
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley defeated former US President Donald Trump in her party’s Washington DC primary on Sunday. While the win denies Trump a clean sweep of the primaries, her path to the nomination remains all but shut.
Haley beat Trump by 62.8% of the vote to 33.3%, securing all of the district’s 19 Republican delegates. The win was Haley’s first of the election season, following losses to Trump in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Michigan and the Virgin Islands in January and February, and Idaho, Missouri, and Michigan on Sunday.
Haley, who ignored calls to drop out of the race after a 20-point loss in her home state of South Carolina last month, now has the support of 43 delegates to Trump’s 244. The former president is projected to win all 15 states and territories up for grabs in this week’s ‘Super Tuesday’ primaries, a victory that would give Trump an all but insurmountable lead over the former UN ambassador.
Washington DC is one of the most pro-Democrat jurisdictions in the nation. President Joe Biden won the district with 92% of the vote in 2020, while Hillary Clinton won 90% of the vote there in 2016. There are only around 29,000 registered Republicans in Washington DC, compared to more than 365,000 Democrats, according to data from the University of Virginia.
“I purposely stayed away from the DC Vote because it is the ‘Swamp’, with very few delegates, and no upside,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “Birdbrain spent all of her time, money and effort there,” he continued. “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. Also, WAY UP ON CROOKED JOE!”
Head to head polls currently show Trump leading Biden by between one and six points, with a New York Times survey published on Saturday showing the former president beating his Democratic rival by 48% to 44%. A CBS News survey released on Sunday found that 46% of registered voters rated Trump’s presidency as “excellent” or “good,” while just 33% said the same of Biden’s time in office.
However, voters in both major political parties told CBS that they are not happy to see a rematch of the 2020 presidential race. When voters were asked how they felt about another Biden-Trump battle, the top responses were “negative” (48%) and “depressed” (42%). Just 20% viewed the matchup as “positive,” and 9% said it was “inspiring.”
