Nikki Haley delivers her acceptance speech on Wednesday in Columbia, South Carolina. (AP)

Washington, Nov. 3: In part, the familiar interest in hair on the part of someone born into Sikh faith catapulted 38-year-old Nikki Haley, born Nimrata Randhawa, to the governor’s mansion in South Carolina last night.

In part, it was staunch and visible support from another wounded woman, South Carolina’s First Lady Jenny Sanford, who was cheated on by her now ex-husband after Haley was smeared by unproved allegations of marital infidelity by political rivals.

But the turning point in her successful bid to be her state’s governor came when Sarah Palin, the unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate in 2008, anointed her as a “mama grizzly”.

It is a political catchphrase Palin coined to describe politicians like herself and Haley who rise up to defend American children in a bear-like fashion against the “evil” policies promoted by President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Haley is the first Indian-American woman to become governor in the US. Although it was widely expected that Haley would join Louisiana’s Bobby “Piyush” Jindal as the second Indian-origin governor in the US, the narrow six per cent margin of her victory came as a surprise.

Although South Carolina is solidly Republican, it is also a redneck state where a role for women in public life does not come easy, especially if she is brown in complexion like Haley.

Clearly, that has not changed even in the 21st century.

When the counting of votes began last night, Haley trailed her Democratic opponent, Vincent Sheehan, and then the two were running neck-and-neck before the victorious Republican took a commanding lead.

Early on in Haley’s bid to be her state’s chief executive, she was subtly mocked not only by Democrats but also by her rivals in the Republican primaries about her obsession with hair.

That was a snide racial reference to her Sikh origin and to her father who wears a turban and keeps long hair according to the tenets of his faith.

These attacks came because as a state legislator in South Carolina, Haley had crafted a law which exempted workers of beauty salons who only shampooed hair from requiring a costly licence to practise cosmetology.

Her opponents falsely alleged that it was the only piece of legislation she piloted during her membership of the state House of Representatives since 2005.

Haley is a protege of outgoing governor Mark Sanford, who has been discredited because he briefly ran away without telling anyone to Argentina to be with his mistress in June last year.

But when two men alleged during the campaign that Haley had slept with them in separate incidents, the governor’s estranged wife who is very popular in the state as a wronged woman came out in public support of the Indian American’s bid to succeed her husband.

Still, her campaign was flagging until May this year when Palin’s husband, Todd, chanced upon a video of Haley speaking at a rally of “Tea Party” activists.

These activists have shaken up the Republican Party this year with their conservatism and borrowing from the idealism of the historic Boston Tea Party in 1773 when tea was thrown out of British ships in protest against colonial taxes.

Todd immediately urged his wife who was then in neighbouring North Carolina to go across the border and endorse Haley. It worked.

Others lose

Other than Haley, the only other Indian American winner of any state-wide office last night was Kamala Harris who will be the new attorney general of California. She will occupy the post vacated by Jerry Brown, who has been elected governor of the state.

Despite a lot of hype this year about political momentum for Indian Americans, six aspirants for Congress lost: Manan Trivedi from Pennsylvania, Ravi Sangisetty from Louisiana, Surya Yalamanchili from Ohio, Ami Bera from California, Raj Goyle from Kansas and Ashvin Lad from Illinois, the only Indian American among them to fight on a Republican ticket.