Nikki R. Haley is the former United States Permanent Representative to
the United Nations. She served as a member of President Donald
Trump’s Cabinet and the National Security Council.
At the United Nations, Ambassador Haley ensured the American people
saw value for their investment, introducing reforms that made the
organization more efficient, transparent, and accountable. In a two
year period, she negotiated over $1.3 billion in savings, including
rightsizing UN peacekeeping missions to make them more effective and
targeted while improving their ability to protect civilians.
In the UN Security Council, Ambassador Haley worked to defend
Americans’ interests and keep our country safe. She spearheaded
negotiations for the passage of the strongest set of sanctions ever
placed on North Korea for its nuclear weapons program, cutting off the
regime’s exports by 90 percent and its access to oil by 30 percent.
As UN Ambassador Haley championed human rights. She challenged human
rights violators across the globe, standing up to oppressive regimes
in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and Russia. During the U.S
presidency of the UN Security Council, she hosted the first-ever
session devoted solely to promoting human rights. She traveled the
world visiting people oppressed by their own governments to see
firsthand the challenges they face and to work with them directly on
life-improving solutions—from Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey, to
internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and South Sudan, to Venezuelan migrants walking miles every day to
cross the Colombian border for food and medicine.
During her time as ambassador, the United States stood proudly with
its allies, repeatedly taking a strong and principled stand against
the chronic anti-Israel bias at the United Nations. In the UN
Security Council, she proudly issued the first American veto in six
years defending the United States’ sovereign right to move our Embassy
to Jerusalem—Israel’s true capital.
Prior to becoming the twenty-ninth U.S. Permanent Representative to
the United Nations, Ambassador Haley was elected in 2010 as the first
female and first minority Governor of South Carolina. Reelected in
2014, she served as Governor until confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in January of
2017.
Under Governor Haley’s leadership, South Carolina was a national
leader in economic development. Known as the “Beast of the
Southeast,” South Carolina’s unemployment rate hit a 15 year low, it
saw over $20 billion in new capital investment, and her administration
announced new jobs in every county in the state, over 85,000 total.
Governor Haley also ushered in the state’s largest education reform in
decades—making education funding more equitable for schools in the
state’s poorest communities, prioritizing reading in early grades, and
equipping classrooms with the latest technology.
Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, she is the daughter of Indian
immigrants and a proud graduate of Clemson University. In her first
job, Ambassador Haley kept the books for her family’s clothing
store—at the age of 13.
Ambassador Haley and her husband, Michael, a combat veteran who deployed to
Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, have two children, Rena, 20, and Nalin, 18.
