Nikki Haley has made waves by announcing that she will be running for President of the United States in the 2024 presidential election, making her the second Republican to officially announce their candidacy behind former president Donald Trump. While Nikki Haley has had quite a storied career in politics and has long been seen as one of the rising stars of the Republican Party, she isn’t as well-known as the other potential candidates who may announce their candidacy in the coming months.
Here is everything you need to know about this presidential hopeful and her family.
Who is part of Nikki Haley’s family?
Nikki Haley was the first female Governor of South Carolina, holding the role from 2011 to 2017. After this, then-president Trump appointed her as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held until 2018. In 2019 she created the policy group Stand for America, and later that year, she became part of Boeing’s board of directors. In 2021, Haley became a lifetime member of Clemson University’s Board of Trustees.
Nikki was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina, in 1972. Both of her parents were immigrants from India. Ajit Singh Randhawa, her father, was a professor at Punjab Agricultural University. After Ajit and Raj moved to South Carolina in 1969, Ajit became a professor at Voorhees College. Nikki Haley’s mother, Raj Kaur Randhawa, also holds a degree in law from the University of Delhi. She used to run a clothing boutique called Exotica International until that company closed its doors in 2008.
Nikki Haley also has one sister and two brothers. Simran, her sister, is a life coach and the founder of the Believe Center. Her two brothers are Mitti, a former United States Army Chemical Corps member, and Charan, a web designer.
It should be noted that Nikki Haley has always gone by her middle name Nikki, despite previous accusations that she had changed her name from Nimrata to Nikki in an attempt to “whitewash” her public persona.
In 1996 Nikki married Michael Haley and took his last name. The pair had first met in 1989 while they were both undergraduates at Clemson University. Michael Haley was an officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard and did a tour of Afghanistan in 2012. When Nikki became the Governor of South Carolina, Michael became the First Gentleman of South Carolina. The pair have two children together, 25-year-old Rena and 21-year-old Nalin.