Nikki Haley, daughter of Indian Sikh Punjabi parents, and former Governor of South Carolina, to run for U.S. President

Nikki Haley, 51, former Governor of the state of South Carolina who held the top post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of President Donald Trump, has announced that she will run for the 2024 presidency from the Republican Party.

This sets her on a collision course with Trump, whom many expect to run again, despite his defeat at the last election to now President Joe Biden.

Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Indian Sikh Punjabi parents in South Carolina and earned a degree in Accountancy at Clemson University. She served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2004-10, when she was elected the first female Governor of South Carolina. She was re-elected in 2014.

She was the second Governor of Indian descent of any state in the U.S. and the first Indian American to serve in a federal Cabinet, serving as Ambassador from 2017-18.

Her parents were from Amritsar in Punjab. Her father served as a Professor at the Punjab Agricultural University and her mother holds a Law degree from the University of New Delhi and a Master’s in Education. The couple moved first to Canada in the sixties for studies and then permanently to the U.S. in 1969.

Haley is married to Michael Haley, an officer in the South Carolina National Guard. They have two children.