Four Nigerian-Americans won elections in the US midterms on 3 November, taking seats in local government and state legislatures in Maryland, Texas, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. A fifth, Georgia lawmaker Segun Adeyina, was still waiting on a result as counting continued, according to Naija News and Newday Reporters.
Will Jawando was elected Montgomery County Executive in Maryland. The Democrat took about 78 percent of the vote in unofficial counts against Republican Esther Wells. The son of a Nigerian father and an American mother, he has sat on the county council at large since 2018 and succeeds Marc Elrich, who is leaving after two terms.
Junior Ezeonu, 27, won Texas House District 101. He was born in Onitsha, Anambra State, and moved to the US as a toddler. He unseated incumbent Chris Turner in the Democratic primary in March, and no Republican filed for the November ballot, so he ran unopposed. He previously served on the Grand Prairie City Council, where he became the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
Oye Owolewa won an at-large seat on the Council of the District of Columbia. A pharmacist of Kwara and Osun descent, he was previously DC’s elected shadow representative, the role that lobbies Congress for statehood and voting rights.
Carol Kazeem kept her seat in the Pennsylvania House, District 159. She was one of eight Nigerian-Americans elected in the 2022 midterms.
Adeyina, who represents Georgia House District 110 in Gwinnett County and heads the Nigerian American Public Advisory Committee, was leading early counts against Republican Charles Lollar with about 66 percent. His race had not been called when the reports were filed. All results are unofficial.
