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Indian-American Nikki Haley to Run for 2024 US Presidential Polls: 10 Facts About the US Politician
Indian-American US politician Nikki Haley on Tuesday announced that she would be running for president in 2024, challenging her former boss and fellow Republican candidate Donald Trump.
In a video message, Nikki Haley said that “it’s time for a new generation of leadership — to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose”.
Here are some facts about Nikki Haley:
- Haley is 51 years old and is the two-term Governor of South Carolina and the former US Ambassador to the United Nations.
- She is the third Indian-American to run for the US presidency in three consecutive election cycles.
- Haley was born as Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to immigrant Punjabi Sikh parents – Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, who had emigrated from Punjab to Canada and then to the US in the 1960s.
- Her father was a professor at Punjab Agricultural University, and her mother received a law degree from Delhi University.
- Haley is the second woman of colour to ever seek the Republican Party’s nomination for the White House.
- She had once famously said that she would not challenge Trump if he ran again. She later changed her stance, arguing the US needs to look towards a different path.
- Haley was the youngest governor in the US at the age of 39 years when she took office in January 2011 and made history as South Carolina’s first female governor. She was also the state’s first Indian-American governor and would go on to serve for two terms.
- From January 2017 to December 2018, she served as the 29th US ambassador to the United Nations.
- Haley positioned herself as a younger, fresher alternative to Trump, and had been hinting at a White House bid for weeks.
- Her public announcement means she will be the first candidate to enter the Presidential poll fray against her one-time boss Trump (76), who announced his third bid for the White House late last year.
(With PTI inputs)
