Nikki Haley Defeats Donald Trump In D.C. GOP Presidential Primary

WASHINGTON – Nikki Haley on Sunday defeated Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary in Washington, D.C., her first win against the former president.

It’s a relatively tiny victory, one Trump will almost certainly use to portray Haley as a creature of the D.C. swamp. D.C.’s 19 delegates will now cast their votes for her at the Republican National Convention in July. That’s out of 2,429 delegates, and so far, Trump has trounced her in all of the other state GOP primaries.

Right on cue, shortly after Haley’s win was announced, Trump’s campaign said her victory means “the swamp has claimed their queen.”

“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 that want to protect the failed status quo,” Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement.

Trump has in November. Nearly 60% think they’re both too old. More than 40% of voters are registering as independent, tying a record high in 2014.

“There is a collective scream in this country,” said Ferrier, who is currently an executive at the International Republican Institute, a GOP nonprofit that advances democracy. “It’s like a collective scream for a leader we can be proud of. But the established political class refuses to listen to it because of their own feedback loops or whatever fucking reason, and Haley is giving voice to that.”

Ferrier said she wants the former South Carolina governor to stay in the race as long as she can, because “she is an affirmation of the politics saying there is a better way. She gets it. It’s clear she understands it.”

“There is another way for our country,” she emphasized.

Haley herself made this point at her campaign event on Friday.

“We don’t have to live the way we’re living now,” she told the room, to applause. “But we need to be part of the solution. We’re gonna fight for Super Tuesday.”

But what is Haley’s endgame, if it’s clear she can’t defeat Trump in the Republican primary but is continuing to campaign and raise money?

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if she knows,” replied Ferrier. “But you know what? There is something about just fighting for basic fucking common decency.”

Liz Skalka contributed reporting.