Indian-American Nikki Haley wins South Carolina governorship
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 03 November 2010, 18:29 IST
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Washington: Indian-American Nikki Haley has created history by becoming the first woman to win the governor's race in South Carolina state and the first Indian-American woman in the country to occupy the office. Born to Sikh parents who migrated from Punjab, Haley created history by becoming the first woman to occupy the governor's mansion of South Carolina. She is only the second Indian-American to be a Governor of a U.S. State after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. According to the unofficial results Haley got 52 percent as against her Democratic rival Vincent Sheehan who polled 46 percent. The much expected victory did not come before giving some anxious moment to Haley and her campaign. For some portion of the counting of votes, Haley was trailing behind, and then was running neck to neck with Sheehan before she took handsome lead. The 38-year-old Haley went on to graduate from Clemson University with a BS degree in accounting and following her graduation worked as Accounting Supervisor for the Charlotte, North Carolina based corporation FCR and five of its subsidiaries. She then went back to the family business where she helped oversee its growth into a multimillion dollar operation. Haley and her husband Michael, a full time federal technician with the South Carolina National Guard and an officer in the Army National Guard, live in Lexington with their two children, Rena, 12, and Nalin, 8. However, the news so far is not good for the rest of the other major Indian-American candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, as all of them were trailing when reports last came in. A record number of six Indian-Americans were in the fray. Five of them are Democrats - Manan Trivedi from Pennsylvania, Ami Bera from California, Raj Goyle from Kansas, Ravi Sangisetty from Louisiana and Surya Yalamanchili from Ohio. Ashvin Lad from Illinois is the only Republican Indian American in fray. In Pennsylvania, Trivedi, a Iraq war veteran, was initially ahead of his Republican rival Jim Gerlach but the latter took the lead later on. While Trivedi had received 58,911 votes, Gerlach had received 76,197 of the total votes counted so far. If elected Trivedi would be only the third Indian American to enter the House of Representatives - after Dalip Singh Saund and Bobby Piyush Jindal. In Kansas, Indian-American Raj Goyle, appeared to be defeated by his Republican rival Mike Pompe. In the 4th House District of Kansas, Pompe had received 59 percent of the total votes counted when reports last came, while Goyle had got just 36 percent of the total votes counted. In Louisiana's third congressional district Ravi Sangisetty had almost lost the elections, with his Republican rivals Jeffy Landry taking an inaccessible lead. Sangisetty, a lawyer by profession, and who Sangisetty, pitched himself as a "pro-life, pro-gun conservative Democrat" had received just 36 percent of the total votes counted. Landry had received 64 percent of the 87 percent of the total votes counted, when reports last came in. Same was the case in Ohio with Surya Yalamanchill - a former Apprentice contestant - was trailing behind Republican Jean Schmidt by more than 79,149 votes.

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