Trump chooses racial conciliator in UN pick Nikki Haley
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Nikki Haley has developed a national reputation as a racial conciliator who led the charge to bring down the Confederate flag at the Statehouse and guided South Carolina through one of its darkest moments, the massacre at a black church.
If the Senate confirms her, she could find herself in the awkward position of being the international voice for an administration that has belittled the United Nations, promised to build a wall along the Mexican border and endeared itself to the alt-right movement, even though Trump has repudiated such groups.
Haley drew wide praise for her leadership after the attack, as she conveyed the state's grief and successfully led calls to bring down the Confederate flag that had flown on the Statehouse grounds for 54 years.
On Tuesday, churches across the state honored Haley's request for prayer vigils amid the nearly simultaneous murder trials of the defendant in the church massacre and a white former police officer accused of fatally shooting a black motorist in the back.
Other crises Haley has grappled with over the past two years include historic flooding in 2015, an elementary school shooting last September, Hurricane Matthew last month and wildfires that continue to rage in the state's northwestern corner.
[...] she says her business experience started at age 13, when she became the bookkeeper of her family's clothing store, a job she returned to after college.