Four Nigerian-Americans win US election seats

Four Nigerian-Americans have won elective positions in the United States midterm elections, securing seats in local government and state legislatures across four jurisdictions.

The winners are Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa and Carol Kazeem, while the outcome of another Nigerian-American candidate, Segun Adeyina, was still pending as votes continued to be counted.

The victories were recorded in Maryland, Texas, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, with all four successful candidates contesting on the Democratic Party ticket, according to the Punch.

Will Jawando, who previously served on the Montgomery County Council, defeated Republican candidate Esther Wells in the race for Montgomery County executive.

Results published by NBC Washington showed Jawando receiving 237,383 votes, representing 78.15 percent, against Wells’ 66,383 votes, or 21.85 percent, with 72 percent of the expected vote counted at the time.

Jawando is the son of a Nigerian father and an American mother.

In Texas, 27-year-old Junior Ezeonu secured a seat in the state’s House of Representatives for District 101 after defeating incumbent Chris Turner in the Democratic primary.

Ezeonu was the only candidate on the November general election ballot after no Republican opponent entered the race.

Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, he moved to Texas at the age of two and was elected to the Grand Prairie City Council in 2021, later becoming the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.

Meanwhile, Oye Owolewa won an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council in Washington DC.

According to local publication The 51st, Owolewa secured 69 percent of the vote against independent candidate Elissa Silverman, who polled 21 percent.

Owolewa, a pharmacist born to Nigerian immigrants from Kwara and Osun states, previously served as the District’s elected shadow representative, a position that advocates for statehood but has no voting rights in the US Congress.

In Pennsylvania, Carol Kazeem retained her seat in the state’s House of Representatives, representing District 159.

She defeated Republican challenger Michael Bannon, extending her stay in the state legislature.

Meanwhile, subsequent election updates showed that Segun Adeyina also won re-election to Georgia’s House of Representatives for District 110, defeating Republican candidate Charles Lollar with 75.6 percent of the vote.

Another Nigerian-American, Gabe Okoye, also retained his seat in Georgia’s House of Representatives for District 102.

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