Conservative news outlet gets flak for ‘racist’ post on Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley /

A conservative news website has attracted controversy after running a racially motivated social media poll about the Indian American presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley on X, formerly Twitter.

“Did you know that Nikki Haley's parents are immigrants from India and her birth name is Nimarata Randhawa?” the poll read. At the time of this writing, 81.7 per cent of respondents said they were aware of this detail while 18.3 per cent said they only knew her as Nikki Haley.

The site, called The Florida Standard (TFS), has over 7,719 followers on X. The Haley poll had garnered 1,500 comments, 452 retweets, and 219 likes at the time of this writing. The publication ran the poll after Haley said she would ban anonymous speech on social media, and everybody with a social media account would need to be verified by their name.

“The former South Carolina governor called for name verification in social media profiles last week, but the presidential candidate has been less than candid about her own identity,” the publication said, in another post. TFS also ran an article titled “Republicans Shocked After Discovering Nikki Haley’s Real Name” on November 21.

Born as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, Haley took her spouse’s last name after marrying Michael Haley. She has cleared the air about her name in the past. In a post on X in 2018, she wrote, “Nikki is my name on my birth certificate. I married a Haley. I was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and married Michael Haley.”

Haley received huge backlash for her recent stances including the 6-week abortion ban and ending anonymous speech online. However, with the TFS poll, a sizable section of the Internet rallied for Haley stating she had never tried to dissociate from her roots and her name and heritage was public knowledge.

“Yes. We know. It’s actually wonderful that Nikki Haley’s parents are immigrants. What’s your point other than backing far right racist tropes? Oh. Right. You’re scared that she’s gaining momentum…” tweeted Olivia Troye, a former staffer of Mike Pence.

“This is a race-baiting question in search of a racist answer. Wrong,” tweeted Cornell William Brooks, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School and President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).