MEET AFRICANS WHO WERE RECENTLY ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE IN U.S

Meet Africans Recently Elected to Public Office in the U.S.

1. April Teniade Ademiluyi (Prince George’s County, Circuit Court Judge)

Ademiluyi was born in Baltimore, Maryland to African Immigrants. She attended Prince George’s County public schools. Through the early enrollment program at University of Maryland College Park, Ademiluyi took college courses while still a high school student. She eventually earned a B.S. in chemical engineering, then began a career as an engineer for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Believing she should do more, Ademiluyi went back to school and graduated from George Mason University School of Law. Immediately afterwards, she opened the Law Office of April T. Ademiluyi. “There is no higher honor than public service.” Ademiluyi has been a dedicated public servant who fights for the well-being of the poor and the injured. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, U.S. Congressman for the 2nd Congressional District of Maryland, recognized Ademiluyi’s achievements in fighting foreclosures pro bono.

Ademiluyi has represented everyone from low-income Maryland residents to international corporations earning substantial profits. In the Maryland courts, Ademiluyi continues to successfully combat foreclosures and engages in a wide variety real estate litigation; consumer protection class action litigation; bankruptcy; family; employment; intellectual property; and personal injury cases. Ademiluyi is licensed in Maryland state courts; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

2. Omar Fateh (Minnesota Senate representing District 62)

Fateh was born in Washington, D.C. to parents who migrated to the United States from Somalia. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from George Mason University in Virginia.

After an unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 2018, Fateh decided to run again in 2020, defeating the incumbent, Jeff Hayden, in the general election. He is the first Somali-American and Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate.

3. Esther Agbaje (Representative for District 59B at the Minnesota State House of Representatives)

Agbaje was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. She lived in Brainerd, and went to high school in Faribault. Agbaje’s parents came to Minnesota from Nigeria to further their education, and they started a family afterwards.

Agbaje attended Harvard Law School. There, she spent two years as a student attorney defending tenants from eviction with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Through this experience, Agbaje developed a passion for housing justice after seeing many of her clients living in unsafe or unhealthy buildings or paying rents they could barely afford. In 2017, after law school, she moved to Minneapolis.

Agbaje was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2020, making her the first NigerianAmerican elected to Minnesota’s legislature.

4. Naquetta Ricks (Colorado House of Representatives for the 40th district)

Ricks was born in Liberia. She moved with her parents to the United States during the Liberian Civil War. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Metropolitan University of Denver, after which she proceeded to University of Colorado Denver for her master’s degree in business administration.

Ricks worked as an accountant before going into politics. After an unsuccessful run for a seat on the Aurora City Council in 2017, she was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in November 2020. With this victory at the polls, Ricks became one of the

5. Oye Owolewa (Delegate member of the United States House of Representatives from the District of Columbia)

Owolewa was born in Nigeria but raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Owolewa earned a doctorate degree in pharmacy from Northwestern University in Boston. Upon graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C. to open his practice in 2012. He volunteered at the Neighborhood Elementary School to get kids interested in STEM.

He was elected in November 2020 as the delegate representative of the United States House of Representatives from the District of Columbia. He became the first Nigerian-American to be elected as a delegate member of the United States Congress.

6. Nathan Biah (Rhode Island House of Representatives from 12th District)

Biah was born and raised in Liberia but fled to the United States at age 20 due to the Liberian Civil War. He sat for his GED and passed after arriving in Providence, R.I. He later earned a degree in criminal justice from Rhode Island College and in 2007 earned a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Rhode Island.

Biah defeated the incumbent representative, Moira Waish, in the primaries and later won the election unopposed. He became one of the first two LiberianAmericans elected to a state legislature in United States of America.