December 27-2013
South Carolina is best known for precipitating the Civil War by becoming the first state to secede from the Union after Abraham Lincoln’s election. It doesn’t have a reputation as a very hospitable state for non-Europeans. But in 2010, it elected as governor Nikki Randhawa Haley, both of whose parents came from India. And now a Democrat named Vincent Shaheen has announced he will challenge her re-election next year. Shaheen’s grandfather came from Lebanon, worked as a peddler, then opened a grocery store in South Carolina. Looks like South Carolina has changed.