South Carolina, Indian-origin, Republican Governor Nikki Haley, 44, has been selected to serve as the US President Elect Donald Trump’s US Ambassador to the United Nations. Haley’s appointment marks several firsts. She served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina from January 2011 to January 2017. Prior to her tenure as governor, Haley was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, serving from 2005 until her election as the governor.
Ms. Haley is the first person to enter the role with no previous foreign policy or diplomatic experience. She will move to New York City for her new job. She will have the option of living at the UN Ambassador residence.
The daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants Raj and Ajit Randhawa, Ms. Nimrata Randhawa or Nikki is married to Michael Haley. She is also the first woman and the first minority picked for a Cabinet-level post in Trump’s administration. She is only the second Indian American, post by Jindal to have ever been an elected governor.
As governor of a state with a history of overwrought race relations, Ms. Haley caught the nation’s attention in 2015 when she led the call for removing the Confederate era flag from the premises of the state’s seat of government and legislature, after the appalling massacre of 9 African-Americans praying at a historic black church by a white supremacist.
Through everything Haley maintained close ties with the Indian-American community – some of whom insist on calling her by her birth name Nimrata.