Haley Wins First Primary While Trump Notches Three More Contests

WASHINGTON — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won her first contest of the 2024 election cycle, handily defeating former President Donald Trump in the District of Columbia’s Republican primary.

Sunday’s victory made Haley the first woman ever to win a Republican primary or caucus, though she remains far behind Trump in the delegate count, with Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day of the year, coming Tuesday.

As of Monday morning, Trump has 244 delegates, compared to Haley’s 43. To win the Republican nomination, a candidate must collect a total 1,215 delegates.

Some 865 Republican delegates will be up for grabs on Tuesday, when most of the contests are winner-take-all. What that means is that if a candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in a state, they will get all of its delegates.

The GOP has set up its rules and primary schedule this way because it wants the candidate sorting to end early and to shift 100% of its focus to President Joe Biden and the general election in the fall.

If the races so far are any indication, Trump could win big on Tuesday, gaining a nearly insurmountable lead in the race for the Republican nomination.

That made Haley’s win on Sunday all the more important. With 100% of precincts now reporting, she gained 62.8% of the vote in the District of Columbia yesterday, netting all 19 of its delegates. Trump received 33.3% of the vote, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got 1.9% and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 0.9%.

Both DeSantis and Christie have already exited the race.

In a statement posted to X, Haley said, “Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past eight years. It’s time to start winning again and move our nation forward!” 

But the Trump campaign dismissed the win, saying it only meant his former U.N. ambassador had been crowned “Queen of the Swamp” by the lobbyists and D.C. insiders that want to protect the failed status quo.

“I purposely stayed away from the D.C. Vote because it is the ‘Swamp,’ with very few delegates, and no upside,” Trump said on his Truth Social media platform. 

“Birdbrain spent all of her time, money and effort there. 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,” he said.

If Sunday was Haley’s turn to bask in the glow of victory, Trump had plenty to crow about Saturday, after he won caucuses in Idaho and Missouri and took all the delegates at a GOP state party convention in Michigan.

In Idaho, Trump garnered 84.9% of the vote, to Haley’s 13.2%. Ron DeSantis got 1.3% and Vivek Ramaswamy, got 0.2% of the vote. Like DeSantis and Christie, Ramasamy has also dropped out of the race.

The Idaho contest comes with something of a story. Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed cost-cutting legislation that was intended to move all the state’s primaries to the same date in May. 

Somehow, however, the wording of the bill eliminated the presidential primaries entirely.

Many in the Republican-led Legislature wanted to hold a special session to reinstate the presidential primaries, but they failed to agree on a time to hold it.

As a result, both parties were forced to hold presidential caucuses this year.

In Missouri, Trump got 100% of the votes under the state’s new caucus system mandated by a 2022 law. The law effectively ended the state’s long-standing primary system, though the Democratic party said it will go ahead with a party-run primary on March 23.

In Michigan, after what amounted to about five hours of deliberation and caucusing last Saturday, Trump garnered 97.8% of the vote among precinct delegates and Haley received 2.2%.

The vote was somewhat compromised by the fact that a large number of those slated to attend the convention skipped the gathering due to an ongoing dispute over the party’s leadership.

Last Tuesday, Trump won Michigan’s primary with 68.1% of the vote compared to Haley’s 26.6%.

Haley has vowed to stay in the presidential nomination contests through Super Tuesday, and possibly beyond. In a sign she plans to keep going, on Monday she announced her campaign’s Louisiana leadership team.

Louisiana holds its primary on March 23.

In related news, Haley told NBC News Sunday that she doesn’t believe she’s bound by a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee in the 2024 presidential race if and when she drops out of the race. 

“I think I’ll make what decision I want to make, but that’s not something I’m thinking about,” she said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue