Many US media outlets are predicting that Nikki Haley will win the Republican primary in the District of Columbia.
It was the first victory for a Republican candidate against former President Donald Trump.
The win for Nikki Haley comes two days before the popular “Super Tuesday,” which could be decisive in the race for the Republican nomination.
So far, his rival Donald Trump has won every one of his party's primaries, often by large majorities.
The 50-year-old, former US ambassador to the UN under Donald Trump, is cultivating the image of a more moderate candidate, promising to restore a certain “normalcy” among conservatives.
However, according to a poll conducted last Saturday in South Carolina, 40% of his supporters indicated that they oppose the candidacy of Donald Trump.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former communications director for the former president, said it was “a huge wake-up call” when he was in the White House.
“A guy running for president who's practically sworn in — Donald Trump — gets 60 percent of the vote, and 40 percent are against him? “It's not exactly a coronation,” he said during an exchange on CNN.
“Donald Trump has a problem, whether he wants to admit it or not,” Nikki Haley warned in a statement Tuesday, after losing a fresh primary to the former leader in Michigan.
“40% of Republican voters want nothing to do with him, and he's done nothing to get them into his increasingly exclusive group,” he said.
