Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley won the District of Columbia’s GOP primary on Sunday, in her first victory over Donald Trump in the 2024 cycle.
With all votes counted, Haley led the GOP front-runner 63–33. The victory breaks a losing streak that has lasted from Iowa until now — but Haley is unlikely to be able to replicate her success with D.C.’s uniquely friendly primary voters in the upcoming Super Tuesday contests, where polls show Trump leading her by double digits in many states. Trump leads the delegate count with 244 to Haley’s 43, with 1,215 delegates required to secure the GOP nomination to face President Joe Biden in November.
The Haley campaign looked to distinguish itself from the Trump administration’s D.C. years, writing, “Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past 8 years. It’s time to start winning again and move our nation forward!” in a post to X following the District of Columbia primary results. This was the first time a woman won a GOP presidential primary.
Haley’s victory in Washington, D.C., a city that went 92–5 for Democrats in the 2020 general election, comes after a rough week for the former U.N. ambassador, with Trump having swept Missouri’s, Idaho’s, and Michigan’s caucuses in the days preceding — netting 134 delegates to Haley’s four in that stretch. Washington, D.C., was Haley’s best bet for a win, and she secured an overwhelming majority of the 2,000 total GOP primary voters.
The Haley campaign hopes to maintain its momentum in Monday’s North Dakota contest, where 29 delegates are at stake. Then, come Super Tuesday, voters in 15 states will cast their votes to determine how the 865 total delegates will be distributed among the candidates. To this end, Haley has made significant investments in Super Tuesday, with a seven-figure ad buy in a few of the most competitive states. The Haley campaign raised more than $12 million in February, a slight dip from her high of $16 million the month prior but more than enough to keep the campaign afloat as it uses what time it has remaining to try and convince Republican voters that they’d be better off without Trump.