Nikki Haley's biography is one of the successful examples of integrating a family from a Third World country into American society. Her family has Indian roots and professes an exotic faith even by the standards of India - Sikhism. Nimrata Randhava, later known as Nikki Haley, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina. The family always called her Nikki. Her father, Ajit Singh Randhava, and her mother, Raj Kaur Randhava, emigrated from Amritsar, Punjab, India. Her father was once a professor at Punjab Agricultural University, and her mother received a law degree from the University of Delhi.
early years
Haley's parents moved to Canada after her father received a scholarship from the University of British Columbia. When her father received his Ph.D. in 1969, he moved his family to South Carolina, where he became professor at Voorhees College. Nikki's mother, Raj Randhava, received a master's degree in education and taught for seven years at Bamberg public schools before setting out to create clothing at Exotica International in 1976.
When Haley was five years old, her parents tried to send her to the Miss Bamberg contest. Since so many African-Americans lived in the city, the contest traditionally ended with the choice of the “black queen” and the “white queen”. And since the judges decided that Haley did not fit into any of the categories, they disqualified her.
Nikki Haley has two brothers: Mitty, a retired US Army official, and Charan, a web designer. She also has a sister, Simran, a radio host and graduate of the Institute of Technology, born in Canada. Nikki Haley's personal life can be called prosperous: in the late 1990s, she fell in love with a white American military man, marrying him and taking his last name.
At the age of 12, Haley began working in her mother’s women's clothing store, which was called Exotica International. Mostly she kept accounting. In 1989, Nikki Haley graduated from Orangeburg Preparatory School. She later graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor's degree in accounting.
Carier start
After graduating from Clemson University, Haley worked at FCR Corporation, a waste management company, before joining her family's already pretty big business. She later became a manager at Exotica International and chief financial officer.
In 1998, Haley was elected to the hometown chamber of commerce. In 2003, she became the treasurer of the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs, and in 2004 she headed the organization.
Governor of South Carolina
In 2004, Haley ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives to represent District 87 of Lexington County. She challenged the current state representative Larry Coon in the Republican primaries, but did not win, taking second place. A few years later, she won the most votes in the South Carolina governor election, becoming the first woman and the first Hindu in the history of the state to hold this post.
In 2006, she was not eligible for re-election for a second term. In 2008, Haley won the election for a third term, defeating her successor and predecessor Democrat Edgar Gomez with a score of 83% -17%.
On August 12, 2013, Haley announced that she would run for another term as governor. She faced a problem in the person of the same party member Tom Erwin, who squeezed her into the primaries. However, Erwin lost, and then claimed that the election of the governor in 2014 was rigged.
As in 2010, Vincent Scheyen from the Democratic Party was her rival again. Independent Republican Tom Erwin again took part in the elections at the very beginning, but lost to libertarian Steve France and United Civil Party candidate Morgan Bruce Reeves. The first public debate was held in Charleston on October 14 between Erwin, Haley, Reeves and Scheyen. The second public debate in Greenville on October 21 again included all five candidates. A week after the second round, Erwin left the race and supported Cheyenne's candidacy.
Haley was re-elected on November 4, 2014. Her second term as governor of South Carolina was due to expire on January 9, 2019, but she resigned on January 24, 2017, moving to the post of US ambassador to the United Nations.
Presidential and Vice Presidential Ambitions
In 2012, former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney invited her to become her candidate for vice presidency. In April 2012, she stated:
I said, "Thank you, but no, I made a promise to the people of this state." And I think this promise matters - I intend to keep it.
American politician Nikki Haley was mentioned in January 2016 as a potential candidate for the post of vice president in the upcoming US presidential election. The Economist magazine called her a high-approval politician who has a combination of “fiscal cruelty and dialogue.” On May 4, 2016, after Trump was elected a Republican presidential candidate, Haley denied interest in the Vice Presidential nomination.
Difficult relationship with trump
Haley criticized Trump during Republican primaries and was a supporter of Florida Senator Marco Rubio. When Rubio dropped out of the inner-party race, she supported another candidate - Ted Cruise, a Texas senator. When Trump became the Republican Party's single presidential candidate, she said she would vote for him, but she was not his fan.
Since Haley became the US Ambassador to the United Nations, several political analysts expressed the view that she could become a possible Republican presidential candidate in the future and was quite capable of occupying the White House.
US Ambassador to the UN
On November 23, 2016, the new U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Hayley as ambassador to the United Nations. On January 20, 2017, President Trump nominated Haley for approval in the United States Senate. It is reported that the president initially proposed to Haley the position of secretary of state, which she refused.
On January 24, 2017, Haley was confirmed by the Senate as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. The four senators who voted against Haley were Bernie Sanders, Martin Henry, Tom Udal, and Chris Quoons. Haley is the first American Indian woman to hold such a serious government position.
Nikki Haley is not very favorably expressed about Russia, being a principled opponent of our country's foreign policy.