Four Nigerian-Americans have won elective positions in the United States midterm elections, securing seats across Maryland, Texas, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania.
The winners are Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa and Carol Kazeem, all of whom ran on the Democratic platform as the party flipped control of both the House and Senate .
1. Will Jawando – Montgomery County Executive, Maryland
Jawando won the race for Montgomery County executive in Maryland, defeating Republican candidate Esther Wells. Results published by NBC Washington showed Jawando with 237,383 votes, or 78.15 per cent, against Wells’s 66,383 votes, or 21.85 per cent, with 72 per cent of expected votes counted.
The 43-year-old, who served as an at-large council member before the election, is the son of Olayinka Jawando, a Nigerian immigrant, and an American mother. He had bested council colleagues Andrew Friedson and Evan Glass in the competitive June primary, running on a campaign to boost education funding and affordable housing.
2. Junior Ezeonu – Texas House of Representatives, District 101
Ezeonu, 27, secured a seat in the Texas House of Representatives for District 101. He defeated incumbent Chris Turner in the Democratic primary and was the only candidate on the November general election ballot after no Republican opponent entered the race.
Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, Ezeonu moved to Texas at the age of two. He was elected to the Grand Prairie City Council in 2021 and later became the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
3. Oye Owolewa – DC Council At-Large, Washington, DC
Owolewa won an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council, securing 69 per cent of the vote against independent candidate Elissa Silverman’s 21 per cent.
A pharmacist and son of Nigerian immigrants from Kwara and Osun states, Owolewa previously served as the District’s elected shadow representative, a position that advocates for statehood but does not carry voting rights in Congress. He has built much of his political identity around his Nigerian roots, saying he was often bullied in school over his name.
4. Carol Kazeem – Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 159
Kazeem retained her seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for District 159, defeating Republican Michael Bannon. Preliminary results showed Kazeem winning by 12,801 votes to 4,109.
She was first elected in the 2022 midterms and was among eight Nigerian-Americans who won legislative seats at the time.
Meanwhile, Segun Adeyina, a Nigerian-born Democratic incumbent, was seeking re-election to the Georgia House of Representatives for District 110 against Republican Charles Lollar. Early results showed Adeyina leading with 1,353 votes against 689, but only eight per cent of estimated votes had been counted at the time of the update.
Adeyina was first elected to the Georgia House in 2022 and represents parts of Gwinnett County. His legislative biography describes him as the executive director of the Nigerian American Public Advisory Committee, an organisation involved in voter education and registration among immigrant communities .
