{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\n\nNikki Haley appeared on the 2024 Tennessee Republican presidential primary ballot as one of the last major challengers to Donald Trump. She suspended her campaign on March 6, 2024, after losses on Super Tuesday, having won the Washington, D.C., Republican primary \u2014 making her the first woman to win a Republican presidential primary or caucus.\n\n## Background and education\n\nBorn January 20, 1972, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina, to immigrant parents from Amritsar, Punjab, India. She earned a B.S. in Accounting from Clemson University in 1994.\n\n## Career\n\nAfter college, Haley worked in the family business and served as treasurer and then president of the South Carolina chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004 and served three terms. In 2010, she was elected as the 116th Governor of South Carolina \u2014 the first woman and first person of Indian descent to hold that office \u2014 and was reelected in 2014. She gained national attention for ordering the removal of the Confederate battle flag from State House grounds following the 2015 Charleston church shooting. President Trump appointed her as the 29th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in January 2017; she served until December 2018. She announced her 2024 presidential campaign on February 14, 2023.\n\n## Family\n\nMarried to Michael Haley, a National Guard officer who deployed to Afghanistan. The couple has two children, Rena and Nalin.\n\n## Sources\n- [1] [Nikki Haley \u2013 Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley)\n- [2] [Nikki Haley \u2013 Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikki-Haley)","campaigns":[{"contest":"president","county":"Shelby","county_count":1,"electiondate":"Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT","pgr":"primary","state":"TN","title":"President"}],"cf_filings":[],"firstname":"Nikki","fullname":"Nikki Haley","lastname":"Haley","office_history":[{"campaigns":[{"contest":"president","contest_title":"President","county":"Shelby","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2024-03-05","office_county":null,"office_key":"president","office_title":"President","party":"R","pgr":"primary","state":"TN"}],"county":null,"cycles":[{"general":null,"party":"R","primary":{"contest":"president","contest_title":"President","county":"Shelby","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2024-03-05","office_county":null,"office_key":"president","office_title":"President","party":"R","pgr":"primary","state":"TN"},"term":null,"year":2024}],"office_key":"president","office_title":"President","state":"TN","terms":[]}],"terms":[],"token":"ZrDg5Nggyy"}