Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, is rising as a national political star as her order to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds went into action Friday.
Haley was once rumored as a vice presidential candidate for Mitt Romney in 2012 after she was elected South Carolina's first female and minority governor as an Indian-American in 2011.
When the Confederate flag controversy reignited in June after the shooting of South Carolina state legislator Clementa Pinckney and eight of his church attendees at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston,
Haley supported the removal of the emblem, Politico reported.
"Nikki showed leadership in this instance, and she represents a new Republican face in the South," political strategist Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain's 2008 presidential bid, told Politico.
"She speaks to the growing diversity of Republican elected officials in executive office, and she's been a very effective governor in the state of South Carolina, and certainly, she's going to be a person given serious consideration," he continued.
NBC News reported back in January that Haley already appeared poised for a national political comeback.
After surviving a bruising election the first time she sought office, Haley
bounced back to win reelection in 2014, according Fox News. She has since received rising favorability numbers with an improving economy.
"If she sees something she wants, she goes after it and I think she's really good at that," South Carolina State Sen. Katrina Shealy told NBC News. "But I think her fault is that if she sees something she wants, she goes after it. She's kinda got blinders on."
Haley appeared to still to those character traits in the Confederate flag debate this week when she told the state's Republicans that she would refuse to sign any bill ordering a take-down of the banner that had any amendments in it, Politico noted.
Some Republican state legislators had attempted to attach amendments on the Confederate flag bill in the House after a bill had passed the state Senate earlier.
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