Presidential primaries

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Donald Trump's challenger Nikki Haley (pictured) prevailed in the preliminary decision in the capital Washington D.C. on Sunday.

(Bild: Associated Press)

Two days before "Super Tuesday", former President Donald Trump has lost out for the first time in the opposition Republican primaries: In the primary in the capital Washington D.C. on Sunday, his challenger Nikki Haley prevailed with 63 percent of the vote. This was reported by several US media outlets.

Trump only achieved 33 percent. Haley thus secured all 19 delegate votes in the capital district. Washington D.C. is considered a stronghold of US President Joe Biden's Democrats. Trump's Republicans have no chance in elections there. The result is therefore considered unrepresentative of the rest of the country. Trump had won the seven previous primaries, but performed significantly better than polls had predicted.

Ex-president reacted snottily to failure
For Trump, it is at least an annoyance that he is no longer unbeaten in the series of primaries. His reaction to Haley's victory was correspondingly stroppy. On the Truth Social platform, which he co-founded, the ex-president wrote that he had "deliberately stayed away from the election in Washington because it is the 'swamp', with very few delegates and no advantages". Haley, on the other hand, whom he called a "birdbrain", had spent all her time, money and efforts on the vote there.

Trump went on to write that he himself had won several other primaries at the weekend and spoke of the "complete destruction of a very weak opponent". Trump's campaign team dismissed Haley's success as a sign that she could only score points with the establishment in the capital, but not with ordinary citizens.

Challenger saw "historic result"
Haley's team, on the other hand, spoke of a historic result: never before had a woman won a US Republican presidential primary. It was also "not surprising that the Republicans closest to the dysfunction in Washington reject Donald Trump and all his chaos".

This is not the first time that Republicans in the US capital have opposed Trump. In the last Republican nominating election in the District of Columbia in 2016, Trump received less than 14 percent of the vote and no delegates, despite winning the nomination nationally. Washington D.C. is 100 percent urban, and a relatively high percentage of residents have college degrees. Many top Republican politicians - including Trump - portray the city as crime-infested and governed by out-of-touch elites. Trump's base tends to be rural at heart and particularly strong in areas with low levels of education.

Victories in strongholds Missouri and Idaho
It was only on Saturday that Trump won the primaries in the Republican strongholds of Missouri and Idaho by a landslide. Prior to that, he had won six primaries, including in Haley's home state of South Carolina. Elections will be held in North Dakota on Monday before 15 states and one US territory hold their primaries on "Super Tuesday".

A total of 874 delegate votes will be awarded on this day. Trump currently holds 247 delegate votes, Haley 43. 1215 votes are required for the nomination at the party convention in July.