Haley Wins the Swamp

Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s remaining competitor for the Republican nomination, won the DC primary Sunday, her first victory in the race so far. In a contest that drew just over 2,000 voters, Haley scored 62.8 percent—1,274 raw votes—and the District’s 19 RNC delegates. At around 67 voters per delegate, that’s a lot of bang per vote—reminiscent of Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 American Samoa win, which saw about 43 voters per delegate.

I’m a native swamp person—born in the DC suburbs, the son of a technical contractor who was the son of a technical contractor. My high school classmates were the sons of arms dealers and federal research scientists. Haley’s overperformance among the dozens (and dozens!) of Republicans in Washington’s city limits is no surprise. These people are historical and dispositional cold warriors; they want the military budgets to keep going up, not least because their jobs depend on it. There also are not very many of them left, because this kind of outlook finds a home primarily in the modern Democratic party.

The swamp has spoken; it has its candidate. Do the American people need to know anything else?

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