Nikki Haley's Son Actually Worked On Her Campaign This Summer
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The 2024 election is less than a year away, and among the presidential hopefuls is former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley.
Haley, a Republican, has been in politics for a long time, serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives for three terms beginning in 2004, before becoming the first female and second Indian governor in the state in 2011. She served as governor until 2017, when she resigned to become the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump.
Recently, Haley made headlines during the Republican debate on Nov. 8, after calling out candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for referencing her daughter's TikTok use on the debate stage.
“She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy said, per The New York Times. “So you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anyone else.”
Haley replied, “Leave my daughter out of your voice” and later added, “you’re just scum.”
Of course, this debate tension led to a lot of questions about Haley's family, and her two kids. So, here’s everything to know about the Republican candidate's family.
Her parents are both immigrants from India.
Haley's parents immigrated to Canada in 1964, and then moved from there to the U.S. in 1969, per The Charlotte Observer. The couple founded the apparel store Exotica International, which closed in 2008 after their retirement, according to a press release from the company. (Haley actually worked there as the comptroller at one point, The Observer reported).
Her mother, Raj K. Randhawa, received a law degree from Delhi University, and earned her Master’s of Education in the U.S. She taught public school for several years, according to the press release.
Nikki’s dad, Ajit S. Randhawa, earned his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, and worked at Voorhees College as a professor of biology, where he taught for 29 years. He retired from teaching and as Chairman of the Division of Natural Sciences, Math and Computer Sciences in 1998, the press release says.
Haley said in a recent interview with Fox News for “The Faulkner Focus" that while her kids were raised Christian, her parents would bring her kids to Sikh services with them. (She converted from Sihk to Christian.)
“They both grew up in the Christian faith. But they would go visit with my parents, you know, in the Indian church, and they would go and experience that,” Haley said of her two kids. “So I feel like they got both traditions, even though their faith is Christian.”
She has three siblings.
Haley's older sister Simran Singh is a “metaphysical mogul,” according to the Charleston City Paper. She’s given TED Talks and has written seven books.
Simran isn’t Haley's only sibling, though. The presidential hopeful also has an older brother named Mitti and another brother named Gogi, according to Simran’s website.
She’s married to Michael Haley.
Haley married her husband, Michael, in 1996, and the couple had two ceremonies—one Sikh and the other at a Methodist church, according to The New York Times.
Michael is a major in the South Carolina National Guard and has been deployed in Afghanistan. In June of 2023, he left for a year-long deployment in the Republic of Djibouti, per ABC News.
Michael has previously talked about his military career and the time he has to spend away from his family. "The only thing that gives me pause is the yearlong deployment away from family,” Michael told The Augusta Chronicle in 2012 before he was deployed to Afghanistan. “But in the end, I can't help but to think giving one year along with my fellow soldiers, as many have done before me, to secure a life of freedom for my family is well worth all that comes with it."
Michael is adopted, and Haley has said that this plays a role in her pro life stance. “I'm strongly pro-life, very pro-life, and not because my party tells me to be, but my husband was adopted, and so every day I know the blessings of having him there,” she said in 2010, per the Associated Press.
They have two children.
The couple share two children, Rena and Nalin. The siblings seem pretty close. In one video Rena posted to her YouTube channel, Nalin was visiting her in Greenville, South Carolina, spending time with her now-husband, and enjoying some food together.
Rena Haley
Haley's daughter, Rena, was born in 1998. She is a registered nurse who lives in Greenville, South Carolina, according to her LinkedIn profile. She now works as a pediatric nurse, per Yahoo.
Rena graduated from Clemson University in 2021 and married her husband, Josh Jackson, in Kiawah, South Carolina, in April of 2023. The two met in college and share two pups, Bentley and Rio. Based on her Instagram, the couple honeymooned in St. Lucia.
In a recent, rare interview with Fox News, Rena said she doesn't like politics, but has attended her mom's debates this year.
“My dad was always that person for my mom during her debates, someone that she could always just pinpoint and just know that she’s okay,” Rena said during the interview. “She’s got that good energy. And so that’s kind of the role that I took on with my dad. Being gone was being at all the debates and being that person for her that she sees and just a familiar face.”
Nalin Haley
Nalin is a senior at Villanova, according to his Instagram bio. Nikki marked the occasion with an Instagram post in August, noting that he was going into his senior year.
He also walked his mom down the aisle at his sister’s wedding:
And in the interview with Fox, Nalin said he worked with the campaign before heading back to school for his senior year.
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