Indian-American presidential candidate Nikki Haley beats Donald Trump for first primary victory

Washington: Indian-American presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, has defeated Donald Trump in the Republican primary in Washington DC, marking her first victory over the former president in the 2024 campaign.

Haley, 52, becomes the first woman to win a Republican primary in US history. She is also the first Indian-American to have won either the Democratic or the Republican primaries. 

The three other previous Indian American presidential aspirants – Bobby Jindal in 2016, Kamala Harris in 2020 and Vivek Ramaswamy in 2024 – had failed to win even one primary.

She received 1,274 votes (62.9 per cent) against 676 votes (33.2 per cent) received by her main rival and former President Trump.

Leasing a new life into her campaign, Haley won her first Republican nominating contest ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday contest.

Super Tuesday is a significant new phase of presidential primaries where the early contests are over and voters from numerous states simultaneously cast their ballots in primaries held on the same day.

However, Trump still has a huge lead over Haley and is likely to face incumbent President Joe Biden in the upcoming November election.

Haley will receive all 19 Republican delegates who were up for grabs in Washington DC, giving her 43 delegates nationwide - well behind Trump's 247.

Haley’s win is seen as largely symbolic as the capital is a heavily Democrat-leaning jurisdiction, with only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the city.

The  former US envoy to the UN, Haley, lost in South Carolina, her home state. The former South Carolina governor's victory came after she was crushed by Trump in caucuses in Missouri and Idaho and at a Republican convention in Michigan on Saturday.

“It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Haley's campaign national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said.

However, the Trump campaign said the results showed that Haley is being crowned “Queen of the Swamp.”

“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders who want to protect the failed status quo. The swamp has claimed their queen,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign's Press Secretary.

“Trump will fight for every American who is being let down by these very DC insiders and devastated by Joe Biden’s failures," Leavitt said.

Trump has dominated every other early nominating contest and is poised to rack up more delegates on Super Tuesday on March 5.

Haley has for weeks pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday when 15 states and American Samoa will hold nominating contests.

Haley’s victory, though a first, did not come as a major surprise. Many in Washington believed the District represented her best, and perhaps only, chance to win a primary.

Reportedly, Trump's influence over Washington's Republicans, consisting of approximately 22,000 registered voters, has never fully mirrored his nationwide dominance. Although Trump ran unopposed and won the primary in 2020, he placed third in the 2016 cycle.

(with agency inputs)