Haley, Chosen to Rebut Obama’s State of Union Speech, Is Rising Republican Star

VOA NEWS – South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will give the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The honor is usually given to someone viewed as a rising star in the party, which aptly describes Haley.

Haley – born Nimrata «Nikki» Randhawa on January 20, 1972, in Bamberg, South Carolina, to Indian immigrant parents – became the state’s first female and first minority governor. She is also the country’s youngest governor – 38 years old when she was elected in 2010. She will turn 44 a week after she appears following the president on January 12.

Haley became South Carolina’s first Indian-American office-holder on her election to the state legislature in 2004. Politically, she is solidly anti-tax and a fiscal conservative.