Four Nigerian-Americans Clinch Key US Midterm Seats

By Samuel Akpan

Four Nigerian-Americans claimed elective offices in the United States midterm elections, securing posts in local government and state legislatures across Maryland, Texas, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, according to Wednesday’s results.

All ran as Democrats amid the party’s sweep of both chambers of Congress.

Will Jawando, 43, won the race for Montgomery County Executive in Maryland, defeating Republican Esther Wells.

The at-large council member, who suffered a heart attack in early September, had earlier defeated colleagues Andrew Friedson and Evan Glass in the June primary on a platform of increased education funding and affordable housing.

Junior Ezeonu, 27, defeated Christ Turner, 54, for Texas House District 101 after also beating him in the Democratic primary.

Born in Onitsha and raised in Texas from age two, he was elected to the Grand Prairie city council in 2021 and became the city’s youngest Mayor pro tempore.

No Republican filed, leaving him unopposed in the general election.

Oye Owolewa captured an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council with 69 percent of the vote against independent Elissa Silverman’s 21 percent.

Carol Kazeem retained her Pennsylvania House District 159 seat by defeating Republican Michael Bannon.

She first won in 2022 as one of eight Nigerian-Americans elected that year.

Democrat Segun Adeyina is seeking re-election. Early tallies tracked by outlets including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed him leading Republican Charles Lollar by 1,353 votes to 689, though that lead reflected only eight percent of the estimated total and the final result remains undecided.

PerSecondNews recalls that a historic group of eight Nigerian-Americans secured legislative and local elective seats during the 2022 United States midterm elections, according to official tracking and diaspora reports at the time.

The victories spanned several states and marked a notable breakthrough for the community.

In Georgia, five candidates won seats in the State House of Representatives. Segun Adeyina captured District 110, Gabe Okoye took District 102, Solomon Adesanya won District 43, Tish Naghise secured District 68, and Phil Olaleye was elected to District 59.

Beyond Georgia, Carol Kazeem won a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for District 159.

Esther Agbaje was re-elected to the Minnesota House for District 59B, while Oye Owolewa retained his position as Shadow Representative for Washington, D.C.