President-elect Donald Trump on
Wednesday named Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina as his choice
for ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley, an Indian-American woman, would
add ethnic and gender diversity to Trump's appointments to top posts
in his administration.
In a statement announcing his decision,
Trump praised Haley as a “proven deal-maker” and having a “track
record of bringing people together regardless of background or party
affiliation.”
In the same statement, Haley called the
appointment, which requires Senate confirmation, an “honor.”
Haley endorsed and campaigned with
Florida Senator Marco Rubio ahead of the South Carolina presidential
primary.
After she called on Republicans to
reject the “angriest voices,” Trump lashed back, tweeting: “The
people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley!”
Haley has a mixed record on LGBT
rights. As governor, she defended South Carolina's constitutional
amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual unions, saying that she
was “doing her job.”
“The citizens of South Carolina
spoke,” she told reporters in 2013. “They spoke something that
I, too, believe, which is marriage should be between a man and a
woman. I'm going to stand by the people of this state, stand by the
constitution, I'm going to support it and fight for it every step of
the way.”
In January, however, she promised that
the next Republican president would “respect” all marriages.
“If we [Republicans] held the White
House, we would respect differences in modern families, but we would
also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our
democracy,” Haley said.
In April, Haley
called a proposed bill that sought to prohibit transgender people
from using the bathroom of their choice “unnecessary.”