NIKKI Haley has secured her first victory in the 2024 Republican presidential primary elections.
The former South Carolina governor won the contest in Washington, DC, on Sunday - giving a vital spark of momentum to her ailing campaign.
The race in Washington, DC, was called in Haley' favor at around 8.30 pm by NBC News.
Haley carried nearly 63 percent of the votes to Donald Trump's 33 percent, the outlet reported.
Since Haley received more than half of the votes, she will scoop up the 19 delegates at stake.
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Haley, who until now had been winless in primaries and caucuses, will ride a small wave of success heading into Super Tuesday.
Sixteen states, plus American Samoa, will hold Republican presidential contests on March 5, the most of any day on the primary calendar.
Haley's spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, took the time to acknowledge that Sunday's victory marked the first time a woman has ever won a Republican primary.
"This makes Nikki Haley the first woman to win a Republican primary in US history," Perez-Cubas wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign mocked Haley's win, calling Washington, DC, a "swamp" of political foes.
"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," read a Trump campaign statement.
"The swamp has claimed their queen."
Sunday's results marked the second time Republicans in Washington, DC, have rejected Trump.
In 2016, Trump received less than 14 percent of the vote and no delegates.
TRUMP'S BIG NIGHT
Haley's first primary victory came after Trump crushed her on Saturday, scoring a trio of victories in Michigan, Idaho, and Missouri.
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Before Sunday's results, Trump began the day with 244 delegates to Haley’s 24, according to the Associated Press.
Trump needs 1,215 delegates to clinch the nomination, and 845 delegates will be available on Super Tuesday.
Despite the former president expected to win the contests on Tuesday, Haley told reporters on Friday that she was only "thinking about Super Tuesday."
The former South Carolina governor has previously said that she plans to continue campaigning until after Super Tuesday.
Haley will campaign in Texas on Monday but has no public events or election night gathering scheduled for Tuesday.
TRUMP TAKES A SWIPE AT BIDEN
During a campaign event in North Carolina on Saturday, Trump took the opportunity to discuss border control and attack his ultimate opponent, President Joe Biden.
“Biden’s conduct on our border is by any definition a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America,” he said at the rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“Biden and his accomplices want to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters, and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations," he claimed.
The accusation comes as Trump — the only American president in history to be impeached twice — faces four criminal indictments for his involvement in the January 6 insurrection.
“Once again, Trump is projecting in an attempt to distract the American people from the fact he killed the fairest and toughest border security bill in decades because he believed it would help his campaign. Sad,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in response to Trump's latest claims.
