Nikki Haley celebrates her victory in Tuesday's South Carolina runoff. (PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images)
(CNN) - The Republican Governors Association wasted no time Tuesday evening congratulating rising GOP star Nikki Haley in her bid to become South Carolina’s first female governor.
Related video: Haley wins GOP runoff
The state lawmaker’s victory over Rep. Gresham Barrett in the GOP runoff “is a testament to her hard work, perseverance and determination,” RGA Executive Director Nick Ayers said in a statement. “Her success ushers in a new era of South Carolina politics, and represents a growing new generation of Republican leaders from across the country. We congratulate her on besting an experienced field of challengers, first capturing the most votes in the primary and then winning the short runoff.”
“We look forward to working with Nikki Haley and her campaign to ensure that she earns a tremendous and well-deserved victory in November,” Ayers added.
In effort to ground Haley’s rising star, Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, slammed the South Carolina Republican and her party.
“National Republicans desperate for a new rising star are prematurely attaching their hopes to Nikki Haley, who has moved so far outside the mainstream that she’s damaged her general election hopes,” Daschle said in a statement.
CNN projects that Haley has beaten Barrett in the GOP runoff. According to vote totals provided by the Associated Press, with 65 percent of precincts reporting, Haley had 158,539 votes or 64.4 percent of the votes reported compared to Barrett's 87,630 votes or 35.6 percent.
Earlier: Haley expected to cruise to GOP nod
From CNN Politics
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Tim Scott, another Palin endorsee, has also won. Its a good night for Sarah Palin. I think we can put that whole "is a Gov. Palin endorsement good or bad" question to rest.
Oh goody goody. The Rethugs got themselves a tan candidate. What does the Tea Party think of this. How about Rush & Co.? Since she subscribes to the conservative claptrap, she won't be any better that the rest and the country will be the poorer for it.
sc wanted there very own sarah,they got one
What an absolutely perfect replacement for a hypocritical scandal-plagued Republican governor!
Great! Another person who hates government and who is supposed to run one now positioned to poison the federal well from within as well. If these right wingers hate big gov so bad why do they want to participate in it? Answer? So they can prop up their corporate cronies at the expense of the common American.
This is a victory for the corporate sector only.
surprise surprise. one more repo nut job. The south should be so proud.
It's great that she wins. This can keep scandal in SC politics for months or years. Who else did she sleep with? One of the Sanfords? Both? This is as good as the National Enquirer!!
It's not Haley who "has moved so far out of the mainstream", it's the liberals who have tried to shove the gay agenda down our throats and spend this country into oblivion until we collapse. Haley's victory is a sign of the times; we are fed up with the Obama regime and it's foolishness. The General and his aides spoke out of their frustration over the inept "leadership".
Now the elite northern intelligentsia will come out of the woodwork and tell us how backward South Carolina is, how racist they are, etc. We'll get to hear how southerners are a bunch of plantation owning rednecks existing far outside of the mainstream. The same yankees will later retire from their overpaid, under worked, unionized no-show jobs, and buy homes in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Then as they live on their over stuffed pensions (from their unionized no-show jobs) that are slowly bankrupting their home states, they can entertain all of us with stories about just how great things were in New York and New Jersey. I can hardly wait.
Good, now we can start repealing that socialized healthcare
Good have mercy on us!!. Saint Sarah has given us 8 more years of a Sanford clone. The only thing about this political oportunist is that she is a truly conservative, in other words they conserve everything for themselves now she can have more consulting jobs and become even richer than her role model.. South Carolina has done it againt!!.
Good for her. Although, the bar is set pretty low in the state of SC.
Sarah Palin sure knows how to pick them.
You better watch your back girl because your party consists of some dirty dealers (demint, mcconnell, cantor, etc). Don't let'em get you.
Good for you now when in November and make SC proud.
Haley is a good choice, she can get jobs for South Carolinians in India.
Good for her. Not a fan of her politics as a liberal, but you have to admire the uphill battle she was facing. If the rumors of infidelity are true, then she is doomed, but we are all innocent until proven guilty.
Thanks again to the steadfast support from Sarah Palin. As candidates are continuing to find out, Sarah's influence is valuable and growing.
Nikki Haley is the Southern version of Sarah Palin. She's going to be a failure just like..........Sarah Failin Palin.
She did say she would quit her job if she was elected and it was proven that she did have the affair with the blogger. The fact that he endorsed her seems very suspect to me. Either he was lying or he's trying to get her to win so that he can tear her apart if she wins.
“Her success ushers in a new era of South Carolina politics, and represents a growing new generation of Republican leaders from across the country."
I find it ironic that the quote doesn't mention that the "new era of South Carolina politics" involves sweeping out Mark Sanford, the old, corrupt Republican governor, who up until it turned out he was a hypocritical philanderer who betrayed his family, also was a rising star in the Republican party and also represented a new era in South Carolina politics. The old "new era" didn't last too long, and no doubt the new "new era" will be just as brief, when it turns out that Haley is an influence pedaling crook.
Congratulations and good luck! S.C. got sumthn' right! finally
We the people...........................are coming!
Well the demorats are getting scared of the future Governor of SC and that would be Mrs Haley. They have one heck of alot more to be scared about with the brain dead people in the current administration starting with the indecisive one in the White House. This administration could not successfully run a fire drill much less this country.
Nothing that comes out of South Carolina can be considered a "rising star." Absolutely nothing.