CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 15: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley waves to supporters while arriving ather first campaign event on February 15, 2023 in Charleston, South Carolina. Former South Carolina Governor and United Nations ambassador Haley, officially announced her candidacy yesterday, making her the first Republican opponent to challenge former U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Super Tuesday is approaching and the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination finally has a little drama.
On Sunday, Nikki Haley became the first woman in history to win a Republican primary. She won the Washington, D.C., primary, defeating Donald Trump 62% to 33%, breaking Trump’s undefeated streak in this early voting portion of the election cycle and picking up 19 GOP delegates.
The delegates added by Haley in D.C. may give her enough motivation to press on into and maybe a little past Super Tuesday, as she has promised to do, but they hardly make a dent in Trump’s commanding lead. As of Monday, Trump holds 244 of the 1215 delegates needed to be awarded the nomination.
On Saturday, Trump won primaries in Idaho and Missouri and swept the Republican convention in Michigan.
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North Dakota is holding a primary on Monday, the last primary before Super Tuesday, when 15 states will hold their primaries, with 865 Republican delegates up for grabs. Trump is favored in all 15 states and can potentially reduce Haley to a mere protest candidate.
Trump seemed unbothered by Haley’s win in D.C., a heavily Democratic area with only 23,000 registered Republicans in the city.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, released a quintessentially Trumpian statement after the race was called, including a new moniker for Haley.
“While Haley has been soundly rejected by the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and D.C. insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” Leavitt said.
Trump won the D.C. primary in 2020 while running uncontested but placed third in 2016.
Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas had a different take on her team’s victory in D.C. “It’s not surprising the Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” she said.
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