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Nikki Haley managed to win the election in Washington state. Photo/Reuters
WASHINGTON – Presidential candidate Nikki Haley won the Republican primary election in Washington, DC, on Sunday (3/3/2024). It was his first win in the nomination process and a symbolic win for the former US ambassador to the UN.
Haley, Donald Trump's only remaining challenger in the race, won 62.9% of the vote, compared to the former president's 33.2%.
“It is no surprise that the Republican Party closest to Washington's dysfunction rejects Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Haley campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement, reported by Reuters.
Haley was the first woman to win a Republican primary in US history.
He still faces nearly impossible odds in his bid to win the Republican nomination to face Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in November. Trump won the first eight nominations by significant margins before losing to Haley in America's capital.
The former president is also expected to win almost all future nominating contests.
Washington, DC, is 100% urban and most of its residents have a college degree. Trump's base of supporters tends to be in rural areas, and he is particularly strong in areas with low levels of education.
“I deliberately avoided the DC Vote because it is a 'Swamp,' with very few delegates, and no advantages,” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social platform.
The city is also home to a large number of federal workers who Trump allies have vowed to fire en masse and replace with loyalists if Trump wins in November. Several categories of federal workers have experienced an increase in death threats in recent years, and Trump has frequently referred to the D.C. area as a “swamp.”