Nikki Haley, a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, has made history by becoming the first woman to win a Republican primary in the US.
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Nikki Haley emerged victorious in the Republican primary held in Washington, DC, defeating the former US President, Donald Trump.
However, Nikki Haley lost in her home state of South Carolina, where Mr. Trump won convincingly.
Despite Nikki Haley’s success in Washington, Haley still has a long way to go, as Mr. Trump currently has a huge lead over her in terms of delegates.
Data shows that Nikki Haley will receive all 19 Republican delegates that were up for grabs in Washington DC, giving her a total of 43 delegates nationwide, which is significantly behind Trump’s 247.
In the Washington DC primary, Haley won 62.9 per cent of the votes, while Trump secured 33.2 per cent of the votes. However, it is important to note that Washington DC is a heavily Democrat-leaning jurisdiction, with only around 23,000 registered Republicans in the city.
Therefore, Nikki Haley’s win is largely symbolic, and she still faces an uphill battle if she hopes to secure the Republican nomination for the presidential election.
Local party officials said 2,035 Republicans participated in the primary, the Washington Post reported.
Nikki Haley’s campaign national spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said: “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos”.
Trump has dominated every state primary or caucus in the Republican campaign and is poised to win more delegates this week, on Super Tuesday, when voters in 15 states and one US territory will nominate their candidate. It is the biggest day of setting contests, with 874 Republican delegates’ support at stake.
