Nikki Haley: The latest Indian-American in the US presidential race

She's known to be tough on immigration, anti-abortion and pro-business

Year 2024 promises to be a crucial one for the global geopolitical map, as two of the world’s largest democracies — India and the United States — vote to elect their next heads of government. And as was the case in the last one, the US Presidential election will feature Indian-origin candidates this time around as well.

Republican Nimrata Nikki Haley (nee Randhawa) ensured this when she announced her candidacy on Tuesday. With this, she became the first Republican to challenge former US President Donald Trump in his bid for the White House. Trump has already announced his bid for the 2024 Presidential campaign on November 15 2020. In the past, Indian-American’s like Bobby Jindal and Tulsi Gabbard have been in the presidential race.

The former Governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations, Haley invoked her background as “the proud daughter of Indian immigrants,” declaring that "it's time for a new generation of leadership” in America.

Her parents, Ajit Singh and Raj Kaur Randhawa, immigrated to Canada and then to the United States from Amritsar, Punjab.

Haley’s father has worked as a professor at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, while her mother studied law at the University of Delhi. Her parents moved to Canada after Ajit Singh received a scholarship from the University of British Columbia and after getting his PhD in 1969, moved with his family to South Carolina.

Haley completed her graduation from Clemson University and after working for a waste recycling company, she joined the family’s clothing business as its bookkeeper chief financial officer.

Her husband, William Michael Haley, is a commissioned officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard.

Haley became active in political activities in 1998 and ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004. She defeated a strong incumbent and was re-elected to the position thrice till 2010 when she decided to run as governor. In 2010, she became the first woman to hold that post in South Carolina and only the second person of Indian descent to serve as a state governor in the United States. Bobby Jindal, also a Republican, was the first.

Hailey is reputed within the Republican party as a solid conservative, with an ability to address issues of gender and race in a credible fashion. Her primary contesting platforms include education, tax reforms, abortion rights, and immigration. As a true-blue conservative, she has propagated more stringent immigration laws. She voted in favour of a law requiring all immigrants to carry documentation that proves their legal status, at all times.

In June 2022, Haley also backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' so-called “don't say gay” law banning classroom discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grades in Florida schools, arguing the law doesn't go “far enough”. She is also expected to back the banning of critical race theory.

Haley describes herself as pro-life and has supported legislation to restrict abortion. During a visit to a Christian school in 2016, she defended her stance saying, “I’m not pro-life because the Republican party tells me; I'm pro-life because all of us have had experiences of what it means to have one of these special little ones in our life.” She signed a law as South Carolina governor in 2016 that banned the procedure in most circumstances after 19 weeks of pregnancy, unless the mother's life is at risk. In the wake of the Supreme Court voting to overturn Roe versus Wade in June 2022, Haley celebrated the ruling on her Twitter account.

Fiscal policy

As a mainstream conservative Republican, Haley is pro-business, interested in the deregulation of business, and cutting taxes to make things more attractive for business. Experts in the US media believe she is likely to run a very policy-focused campaign.

Under her leadership as the governor, South Carolina announced more than 85,000 new jobs and $21.5 billion in capital investment. She had also sent out an open invitation to businesses stressing that “the cost of doing business is going to be low here”.

Foreign policy  

The former US ambassador to the UN is critical of China and its threat to the US on a global scale, as well as the country's human rights abuses.

In Tuesday's campaign video, Haley accused China of committing “genocide" in reference to the country's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population and noted that China and Russia are “on the march” against the US.

During her tenure, the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was signed by Democratic President Barack Obama and was hugely unpopular among Republicans.

Haley vs Trump

Haley, once a supporter of Trump, has criticised him post the attack on US Capitol in 2021. She has also rejected the confrontational approach of conservative leaders like Trump and other Republicans when dealing with Democratic opposition. “Real leadership is about persuasion, it's about movement, it's bringing people around to your point of view,” she told a conservative conference of high school students at the High School Leadership Summit at George Washington University last year. “Not by shouting them down, but by showing them how it is in their best interest to see things the way you do.”

Haley, however, currently has nowhere near the national recognition and support of the former president in the still-early presidential primary. Moreover, shortly after she announced her campaign for president on Tuesday, footage was released by Patriot Takes — an anonymously run social media account — showing the former governor saying states have the right to secede from the union. This might hurt her prospects.