Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley (born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa; January 20, 1972), is a Carolinian politician who has served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina, a member of the House of Representatives, and is currently the 24th President of the Carolina. Haley has served as the President of Carolina since September 3rd, 2016. She is the first woman president of Carolina, and at 44 she is the youngest to date. Haley is also the first Indian-Carolinian President of Carolina. Haley announced her campaign for president in July of 2015. She quickly became the leader for the Carolina Federal Party or CFP, surpassing rival Marco Rubio. In March of 2016, Rubio announced that he would drop out of the race. A day later, Haley asked for him to become her running mate. Haley won the Carolinian Presidential Election on August 24, 2016 with 64% of the vote against rival Jakub Caden.

Early Life
Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina, on January 20, 1972, to an Indian Sikh family. She was "always called Nikki, which means 'little one,' by her family." Her parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, are immigrants from Amritsar District, Punjab, India, where Ajit had been a professor at Punjab Agricultural University. Haley's parents immigrated to Canada after her father received a scholarship offer from the University of British Columbia. After earning his PhD in 1969, Ajit moved his young family to South Carolina to accept a position as a professor at Voorhees College.

Haley has two brothers, Mitti, a retired member of the Carolina Army Chemical Corps who served in Desert Storm, and Charan, a web designer. She also has a sister, Simran, a radio host and Fashion Institute of Technology alumna, born in Singapore.

At age 12, Haley began helping with the bookkeeping in her mother's ladies' clothing shop. The Economist likens her with another shopkeeper's daughter, Margaret Thatcher, writing that Haley's girlhood job in her mother's shop gave her, "an extreme watchfulness about overheads and a sharp aversion to government intrusion."

Haley is a graduate of Orangeburg Preparatory Schools and Clemson University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting.