Five politicians of Nigerian descent have won elective positions across the United States following the November 3 midterm elections, strengthening the presence of Nigerian-Americans in local and state-level politics, while another candidate remained ahead in a race yet to be called.
The victories span Maryland, Texas, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Georgia, with candidates elected to county government, state legislatures and the District of Columbia Council. The winners are Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa, Carol Kazeem and Gabe Okoye. Segun Adeyina, a Democratic incumbent in Georgia, was also seeking re-election, but his contest remained unresolved as votes were being counted.
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In Maryland, Jawando defeated Republican candidate Esther Wells to become the next Montgomery County executive, replacing Marc Elrich, who is stepping down after reaching the limit of his tenure.
Results reported by the Associated Press showed Jawando winning about 78 percent of the vote, against Wells’s 22 percent, with more than three-quarters of the expected votes counted. He had served as an at-large member of the Montgomery County Council before the election.
The son of a Nigerian father and an American mother, Jawando built his campaign around public education, affordable housing and economic opportunity. His victory marks a change in leadership for Montgomery County, which Elrich has governed since 2018.
In Texas, 27-year-old Junior Ezeonu won the race for District 101 in the state House of Representatives. He had secured the Democratic nomination after defeating incumbent Chris Turner in the party’s primary and faced no Republican opponent in the November election.
Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, Ezeonu moved to Texas with his family when he was two. He entered public office in 2021, when he was elected to the Grand Prairie City Council, later becoming the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
Before the election, Ezeonu identified raising the state minimum wage to $15 an hour, increasing funding for public schools, and making homeownership more affordable among his priorities. He also opposed Texas’s private school voucher law.
In Washington, DC, Oye Owolewa won an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council. The pharmacist, who is the son of Nigerian immigrants from Kwara and Osun states, previously served as the District’s elected shadow representative, a role that advocates for statehood but does not carry voting rights in Congress.
Local publication The 51st reported that Owolewa secured about 69 per cent of the vote, compared with 21 per cent for independent candidate Elissa Silverman. His election to the council gives him a different platform from his previous role, which focused on representing the District’s interests in its pursuit of statehood.
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In Pennsylvania, Carol Kazeem retained her seat in the state House of Representatives, representing the 159th District. She defeated Republican challenger Michael Bannon, according to results published by MultiState Elections.
Kazeem, a Nigerian-American, has represented the district since January 2023. Before entering politics, she worked in healthcare for more than 13 years, including as a trauma outreach specialist, and later trained as a paralegal. She was also among eight Nigerian-Americans elected to legislative seats during the 2022 US midterm elections.
Georgia recorded another Nigerian-American victory through Gabe Okoye, a Democrat who won a seat in the state House of Representatives for District 102. A professional civil engineer and chief executive of Essex Geoscience Inc, Okoye previously chaired the Gwinnett County Democratic Party and has lived in Lawrenceville since 1992.
Another Nigerian-born Democrat, Adeyina, was seeking a second term in the Georgia House, representing District 110. He faced Republican challenger Charles Lollar. An early update from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed Adeyina leading with 1,353 votes to Lollar’s 689, although only 8 per cent of the estimated vote had been counted at the time. The result had not been called.
First elected in 2022, Adeyina represents parts of Gwinnett County. His legislative biography identifies him as executive director of the Nigerian American Public Advisory Committee, an organisation involved in voter education and registration among immigrant communities.
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The results add to the participation of Nigerian-Americans in US public life, with candidates securing positions at different levels of government. Their backgrounds also reflect varied routes into politics, from local council service and professional careers to community organising and party leadership.
The November 3 elections determined control of Congress, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats contested. Voters also decided governorships, state legislative races and local government positions across the country.
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Faith Omoboye is a foreign affairs correspondent with background in History and International relations. Her work focuses on African politics, diplomacy, and global governance.
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