Nikki Randhawa Haley, the Indian-American Governor of South Carolina whose political stock has been rising lately, has said that she would consider joining the Republican ticket as the Vice Presidential running nominate, if asked by the party’s chosen presidential nominee.
“If there is a time where a presidential nominee wants to sit down and talk, of course I will sit down and talk,” said Haley on Wednesday in what was perhaps her first high-profile appearance in Washington as the National Press Club’s featured speaker.
At the same time, she sought to be somewhat dismissive of the talk at this early stage of the 2016 race in which as many as 17 Republicans are vying to become the party’s nominee.
The 43-year-old Haley attracted national attention with her deft response to the mass shooting at a black church in Charleston in June, particularly for her push to remove the segregationist Confederate flag from the State Capitol grounds in Columbia.
Her willingness to consider a VP run notwithstanding, Haley asserted: “I’m not wasting any energy or any time thinking about that because I’ve got too much to do. I’m trying to continue to heal the state….I’ve got a son in middle school, I got a daughter who’s a senior in high school, I’ve a husband who just came back from Afghanistan.”
Unlike Bobby Jindal, the louisiana Governor who does not like the Indian-American label and just wants to be called an American as part of his assimilation philosophy, Haley appears to celebrate her ethnic roots, thereby appealing to the Indian-American community.
“The first thing I want to say today is that I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrant parents, who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country,” Haley said in her opening remarks at the NPC.
Commentators have started focusing on her as a possible vote-catcher in segments that are virtually considered out-of-bounds for the Republicans — an assortment of minority groups.