Nigerian-Americans recorded impressive results in the November 3 midterm elections in the United States, with four of them winning their races and another leading in Georgia.
Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa and Carol Kazeem won seats in Maryland, Texas, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, while Segun Adeyina was ahead in Georgia’s House District 110 contest.
Democrat Will Jawando was elected Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland, after trouncing Republican Esther Wells.
The son of a Nigerian father and an American mother, Jawando polled 195,872 votes, about 79 per cent, while Wells got 52,141 votes, according to unofficial results.
Jawando, an at-large member of the county council since 2018, takes over from Marc Elrich, who is exiting after two terms.
In Texas, Junior Ezeonu, 27, was elected to represent District 101 in the state House of Representatives.
Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, Ezeonu relocated to the US with his family as a toddler.
He unseated the incumbent, Chris Turner, in the March Democratic primary and faced no Republican opponent in the general election, scoring 37,278 votes.
A former member of the Grand Prairie City Council, he made history as the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
Oye Owolewa, a pharmacist of Kwara and Osun descent, won an at-large seat on the Council of the District of Columbia.
He previously served as the district’s elected shadow representative, a role focused on advocating statehood and voting rights in Congress for Washington, DC.
Kazeem Re-Elected In Pennsylvania
Carol Kazeem retained her seat representing District 159 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, beating Republican Mike Bannon by 12,801 votes to 4,109, according to preliminary results.
She was one of eight Nigerian-Americans who won legislative seats in the 2022 midterms.
In Georgia, incumbent Segun Adeyina was leading Republican Charles Lollar with 66 per cent of the votes counted so far, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, though later tracking showed him as the winner.
Adeyina, who represents parts of Gwinnett County, heads the Nigerian American Public Advisory Committee, which promotes voter education among immigrants.
The elections, held midway into President Donald Trump’s tenure, were viewed as a referendum on his administration.
All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats were up for grabs, alongside governorships and other state and local positions.
The results further reflect the rising political influence of the Nigerian diaspora in the US.
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