Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley finally notched her first win in the GOP presidential primary, winning the Washington, DC contest by about thirty points, or 598 votes. Haley picked up nineteen delegates in the contest and now trails Donald Trump by 201 delegates.
The nation’s capital is arguably the worst place Haley could have achieved her first victory. The Trump campaign immediately used it as proof that she is in bed with the political establishment and fundamentally a candidate that can only win with the support of the consultant and donor class. Haley’s team has pushed back on this criticism by pointing out that Haley has never been elected to federal government, although she was appointed ambassador to the United Nations by Trump before joining the board of Boeing, a top-five government contractor, and has buoyed her campaign with money from political mega-donors. The Haley campaign spun the win: “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” a spokesperson said.
In keeping with her campaign’s tradition, Haley also celebrated her DC win on identity politics terms. “Nikki Haley made history on Sunday as the first female presidential candidate to win a Republican primary contest,” her PAC, Stand for America, said.A GOP consultant snarked to me, “She has the distinct honor of being the only GOP woman who stayed in the race long enough to make it to DC and she still didn’t win by as much as Hillary Clinton against Bernie.”
Still, no one could make the case against Nikki Haley as effectively as her own voters. In interviews with Politico, they condescendingly described themselves as more high-brow and educated than the average Republican voter.
“You’ve got a really dialed-in political class,” Dan Schuberth said. “You know, folks read Politico. They read the Hill. Folks here are reading the Washington Post.”
“This is a more moderate area,” Dennis Paul echoed. “And I think people here think a little bit more rationally.
“This universe is a little more sophisticated than just about any universe in any other state,” Patrick Mara, chair of the DC Republican Party, declared. “I listen to the political podcasts in the morning. I read the newsletters throughout the day.”
Haley is not going to let the political class of voracious Playbook readers down. She promised after the DC victory to “fight for every inch” — now we just need to figure out if she’s talking about her heels again.
-Amber Duke
On our radar
TEXAS UNTOUCHED White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not provide an answer when asked at a recent press briefing why the Department of Homeland Security had not removed razor wire erected by the Texas National Guard at the southern border, despite a court ruling giving DHS the authority to do so.
AMERICANS AGAINST BIDENOMICS Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded nonprofit, has found a new hobby horse after pulling support from Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign. AFP is now running an ad blitz against President Joe Biden’s economic policies and has launched an attack website at Bidenomics.com.
NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES JetBlue scrapped its plans to purchase Spirit Airlines, months after a judge blocked the proposed merger, which both companies hoped would help them better compete against larger airlines. JetBlue will pay $69 million to Spirit to terminate the deal.
SCOTUS strikes down Colorado
The Supreme Court of the United States this morning reversed Colorado’s Supreme Court ruling that removed Trump from the state’s primary ballot.
The SCOTUS decision was unanimous, rejecting the claim that the “insurrection clause” (Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3 of the Constitution) allowed for Colorado to exclude Trump from appearing on the ballot due to his “participation” in the January 6 riot. All nine justices said that individual states cannot bar candidates from the presidency under the insurrection clause, while a five-justice majority went a step further and said that Congress is specifically charged with acting on such matters through legislation.
Trump immediately celebrated the ruling, writing on Truth Social, “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”
He later delivered remarks at Mar-a-Lago in which he addressed President Joe Biden directly.
“President Biden: number one, stop weaponization. Fight your fight yourself. Don’t use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent… so you can win an election,” Trump said. “Our country is much bigger than that.”
–Juan P. Villasmil
Super Tuesday on the menu
Across America tomorrow, fifteen states from Alaska to Maine are voting in presidential primaries, shifting the presidential primary into even higher gear.
While Nikki Haley made history by winning the DC primary, Trump will have some presumed momentum of his own, as he’s predicted to easily win tonight’s caucus in North Dakota. While it may be tempting to dismiss the Flickertail State’s significance in presidential politics, Representative Kelly Armstrong noted that North Dakota delivered Trump the clinching delegate eight years ago. Trump, he said, has “never treated us like flyover country.”
Trump is also riding high from last week’s blowout victory in Michigan, where Republicans are eager to potentially flip a Senate seat for the first time in decades. Former congressman Mike Rogers, who is steadily clearing the GOP primary field for that seat, told The Spectator, “President Trump’s strength going into Tuesday follows his decisive victory in Michigan that is even more proof that Republicans are united going into November.”
President Joe Biden, on the other hand, saw more than 100,000 Democratic primary voters pick “uncommitted” over him, in part due to frustration with his administration’s policy on Israel.
Trump is predicted to sweep the Super Tuesday states from Maine, where Trump’s allies like state representative and former professional racecar driver Austin Theriault praise his understanding “that working people are being taken advantage of by the ruling class,” to Alaska, where the state’s lieutenant governor Nancy Dahlstrom tells me she’s “proud” to support Trump in large part due to his record from his first term, where “we were able to thrive under limited government, pro-freedom policies that Alaska was built on.”
Tennessee congressman Andy Ogles told The Spectator he’s excited to back the former president in his state’s primary tomorrow, citing America’s “downward spiral” under Biden, who “has embarrassed the US time and time again on the international stage, created economic hardship for millions and pushed woke agendas ahead of education and national security.”
Trump continues to push for consolidation in the GOP, as he has since the Iowa caucus. Dahlstrom agreed its time for the party to unify: “The results on Super Tuesday will no doubt be a landslide for President Trump and as we shift our focus to November, I’m excited to work hand-in-hand to end Joe Biden’s presidency.”
–Matthew Foldi
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