Nikki Haley has won the Washington, D.C. GOP primary and its 19 delegates. It’s her first win in the presidential primary race, but polling shows an uphill battle for her in tomorrow’s Super Tuesday voting.
Haley garnered 1,274 votes to former President Trump’s 676 with all precincts reporting, according to DDHQ.
The win for the former United Nations ambassador breaks a streak of more than a half dozen victories for Trump to start out the GOP contests for the nomination. It’s a much-needed triumph for Haley to show she can top Trump somewhere, but she still has a long road ahead of her.
She has pledged to stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday this week, when more than a dozen states will vote. But she was not able to win any of the early-voting states in January and February, and no upcoming state obviously jumps out as a clear opportunity for her to win.
Still, the win in the winner-take-all D.C. primary will give her all of its 19 delegates. Voting in the District took place across three days from Friday to Sunday.
Trump still has an early lead in delegates attained that will likely grow significantly on Tuesday with the additional states voting. Candidates need at least 1,215 delegates to mathematically clinch the Republican nomination.
The Democratic primary in D.C. will take place in June.