Trump Campaign Says Haley’s DC Win Only Proves Popularity With Insiders and Elitists

Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., on Feb. 20, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has clocked her first win of the 2024 Republican primaries after winning the vote in the Washington District of Columbia. The Trump campaign responded by saying the win only went to show Ms. Haley’s platform is popular with D.C. insiders and not regular Americans.

Ms. Haley won the district primary in D.C., taking 62.8 percent of the vote to Trump’s 33.3 percent, giving her 19 delegates from her win. She is also now the first woman to win a Republican presidential primary in U.S. history.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Ms. Haley’s victory only strengthens the object of the former president’s campaign to “drain the swamp and put America first.”

“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout 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,” Ms. Leavitt said.

“The swamp has claimed their queen. President Trump will fight for every American who is being let down by these very DC insiders and devastated by Joe Biden’s failures,” she added.

The Epoch Times has contacted Nikki Haley’s press office for comment.

Earlier, her campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement, “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos.”

The District of Columbia has a record of voting “deep blue,” with a high number of voters who lean toward Democrat candidates. Around 92 percent of people who voted in the district during the 2020 election cast a ballot for current President Joe Biden.

At this stage of the race, only former President Donald Trump and Ms. Haley remain as GOP candidates after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out in acknowledgement of the clear voter support for President Trump.

After her recent win, Ms. Haley now has 43 delegates, but former president Trump is still ahead with 244 delegates. At least 1,215 delegates are required to clinch the party nomination for president and run against whoever takes out the Democratic Party nomination.

Haley Committed to Super Tuesday

Ms. Haley’s win in Washington came only one day after President Trump took all three Republican caucuses in Michigan, Missouri, and Idaho. On Super Tuesday, 15 states will hold primaries simultaneously, which is expected to decide the lead GOP candidate. Around a third of all the delegates are up for grabs—more than on any other day during the election cycle.

At the moment, Ms. Haley has said she will remain in the presidential race until at least the conclusion of those contests. It’s still unclear if she will support President Trump if her own presidential bid is unsuccessful. Recently, she cast doubt on the pledge she made to the Republican National Committee (RNC) to support the eventual Republican candidate as decided by the voters.

According to Ms. Haley, she hasn’t thought about whether she will endorse the GOP presidential candidate yet because she is still in the race and can’t allow any thoughts about losing into her mind.

She also made it clear her campaign won’t shift strategies and run as a third-party “No Labels” candidate, and insisted she’s not “anti-Trump” but looking for votes from Republicans who want an alternative to the former president.