REPORT: Multiple Somalian refugees win political office in US elections

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News App offers the following information published by WashingtonPost:

With just a week to go before the election, Safiya Khalid was in tears. She had spent the past six months knocking on hundreds of doors in Lewiston, Maine, the city where she arrived as a refugee more than a decade earlier, and where she hoped to be the first Somali immigrant to win a seat on the city council. Suddenly, online trolls from as far away as Alabama and Mississippi were hurling vile abuse at her, telling her that Muslims had no place in American government and she should go back to where she came from.

“I just couldn’t take it,” Khalid told The Washington Post on Tuesday night. “I was crying so bad. My eyes were completely red.”

The article goes on to state the following:

Khalid, a Democrat, was unsettled by the fact that someone had posted her address on social media. But she was also worried the hate-fueled attacks would become a distraction. So she deleted her Facebook account, asked friends to look out for worrisome comments and went back to pounding the streets with her leaflets and her clipboard.

Khalid, 23, won her race by a “significant margin” Tuesday night, and may be the youngest person to ever serve on the Lewiston City Council, as well as the first Somali immigrant, the Washington Post report states.

Another 23-year-old Somalian woman, Nadia Mohamed also won a seat on the St. Louis Park City Council in Minnesota.

Additionallly, another Somalian refugee, Abdulsalam Adam, won a seat on a school board in Minnesota, according to a Twitter post by Bernie Sanders Iowa political coordinator Abshir Omar.

Fellow Somalian refugee Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted in response to the report, “You might smear us. You might hurl racist attacks at us. But we will always rise up to serve our communities. Congratulations, Safiya!”

To get more information about this article, please visit WashingtonPost. To weigh in, leave a comment below.

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