Nikki Randhawa-Haley, left, with husband Michael and children Rena and Nalin. A resident of Lexington, Nikki, her mother Raj and sister Simran run ‘Exotica International,’ an upscale clothing business. She is on the board of ‘Lexington Chamber of Commerce,’ and president-elect of the ‘National Association of Women Business Owners.’ (Photo, as it appears on www.nikkihaley.com)

Nikki Randhawa-Haley, 32, came within 100 votes of winning the Republican party primaries for the South Carolina Assembly. She is now in the runoff scheduled for June 22 where she faces a one-on-one with Larry Koon.

Running from the 87th District, Randhawa-Haley told News India-Times, “I am absolutely thrilled with the close call. My opponent is the highest-ranked member in the State House and has been there 30 years.”

She was pitted against incumbent Koon, who had earlier indicated he may not run again, making Randhawa-Haley clinch her decision to enter politics. Considered one of Lexington County’s most competitive State House races, the three-way split was a result of another novice candidate, David Perry, an insurance agent and former state trooper, taking some of the vote in the race to displace the longest-serving member of the State House, Koon. The 87th District stretches from the south shore of Lake Murray through the west side of the town of Lexington and Red Bank and along I-20 to Gilbert.

“It was as close as any race could be,” said Randhawa-Haley. With 100 percent of the votes counted for the 18 precincts, Koon received 42 percent of the vote (2,354), Haley 40 percent (2,247), and Perry 17 percent (968).

A resident of Lexington, Randhawa-Haley was born and brought up in the state, despite which she said she faced negative stereotyping as a South Asian and for the fact that she followed the Sikh religion. During her campaign, Randhawa-Haley said she had people questioning “what religion is she, is she Muslim, is she part of that group with Osama bin Laden.”

“We knew it was such an uphill battle, but I worked so hard,” she said.

In an earlier interview with News India-Times, Randhawa-Haley had said, “Everyone that knows me knows that I like to do things 150 percent. Most of all I want to make a difference. My only option is to win. I don’t have any other.”

She and her mother Raj, as well as her sister Simran, run Exotica International, an upscale clothing business. It has grown from a small motel room to a 10,000 sq. ft establishment with a revenue in fiscal 2003 of $1.8 million, her father Ajit Randhawa told News India-Times.

“If I win this, I will be the first Indian to be in the (South Carolina) state assembly. So that people can start looking at County boards, school boards. All that is not happening right now,” Randhawa-Haley had said during her campaign.

Born in Bamberg, SC, in 1972, and brought up there before moving to Lexington, Randhawa-Haley attended Clemson University, majoring in Finance. She then worked with FCR Corporation as an assistant business manager before joining her mother’s business in 1994. Her father is a retired professor of biology who chaired the Department of Natural and Computer Sciences at Voorhees College.

Randhawa-Haley is on the board of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, and president-elect of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and chairperson of Lexington Gala raising funds for the local hospital.

“The reason I decided to get into this was that I am involved in the community already, I was just stepping up my responsibilities, just my way to giving back,” Randhawa-Haley said. “Also, we currently don’t have any Indian holding office. In the past couple of years, we’ve known people who needed to know someone in government to jump hurdles.

“That is another reason I thought, we Indians are very good in everything we do, whatever we do extremely well, but we are still not in government. And I really just want to show that we are great at that just as we are in medicine or whatever else we do.”

She is now going to have to wait another two weeks before she knows whether she can enter the November race for the State House.