Trump, Haley face off in Washington, D.C., Republican primary

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on from the stage as he hosts a South Carolina Republican presidential primary election night party in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Presidential contenders Donald Trump and Nikki Haley will face off in the Washington, D.C., Republican primary on Sunday, a small-stakes contest that could be one of Haley’s best shots to score a win over the former president.

The United States’ capital city only sends 19 out of 2,429 delegates to the Republican National Convention in July, where the nominee is formally selected. Sunday’s results are unlikely to change the trajectory of a race that Trump appears to have stitched up, having won all the previous nominating contests.

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks as she hosts a campaign event in Falls Church, Virginia, U.S. February 29, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

Still, the District of Columbia, as D.C. is formally known, could be unusually fertile territory for Haley, said a high-ranking official at SFA Fund, the main super PAC supporting Haley’s bid.

During the last competitive Republican nominating contest in D.C. in 2016, Trump received less than 14% of the vote and no delegates, even as he went on to win the nomination nationally.

The local party’s single polling station in a downtown hotel has been open during daytime hours since Friday morning, and it will close for the last time on Sunday at 7 p.m. (0000 GMT), after which votes will be counted.

The city is 100% urban, and a relatively high proportion of residents hold a college degree. The core of Trump’s base skews rural, and he is particularly strong in areas with low educational attainment.

If Trump wins, it would illustrate how he maintains a core group of supporters within every demographic and geographic slice of the Republican Party.

A lack of local opinion polls and the extremely limited number of Republicans in the city has created a degree of uncertainty about the primary’s outcome.

Haley campaigned in D.C. on Friday, hosting an event in the same hotel where the polling station is located. Trump’s campaign has been largely absent in the city, beyond sending out texts to local supporters asking them to vote.

The Democratic primary in Washington will be held in June.

On Tuesday, voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory will caucus or go to the polls on the biggest day of nominating contests in the presidential primary. Known as Super Tuesday, 874 Republican delegates will be up for grabs.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)