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All Eyes on Governor Nikki Haley as South Carolina Rethinks Confederate Flag

The Republican recommended that the controversial piece of state history be removed.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley holds a news conference with fellow members of the Republican Governors Association at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce February 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley holds a news conference with fellow members of the Republican Governors Association at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce February 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Emily Greenhouse
Corrected

The fate of South Carolina's Confederate flag came down to the state's unlikely governor, an Indian-American woman elected in the aftermath of her predecessor's extramarital affair.

Republican Governor Nikki Haley, 43, the daughter of Sikh immigrants, recommended removing the controversial relic of her state's history from the state capitol building. “Today we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will to say it is time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds,” Haley said at a press conference.
 
Haley's stance on the flag in the aftermath of the shooting rampage at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church comes after a  long campaign to take her place among the state's male patriarchy, after 232 years of white men in the governor's chair.