Safiya Khalid’s win considered ‘milestone’ for Lewiston

أخبار الصومال

اليمن العربي

The comments began on social media as soon as Safiya Khalid was named Lewiston’s first Somali-American city councilor.

She only going to help her kind take over.”

She had somalis voting for her that’s all there is in lewiston.”

This is very sad. Where were all the American voters yesterday??? Can’t believe they let this happen…”

But 23-year-old Khalid — also the youngest person ever elected to the council — wasn’t reading Facebook after her historic win Tuesday night. She was too busy calling her mom, who as a single parent had moved her three young children, ages 7, 5 and 2 months, to a country where she knew no one and couldn’t speak the language.

She was just crying. Oh my god, it was the best moment of the entire night, just seeing her happy,” said Khalid of her mother, who attended the election celebration later that evening. “She said, ‘I knew you could do it. I knew. There was a reason I moved to Lewiston all those years ago.'”

Khalid’s win was extraordinary for a number of reasons. She will be Lewiston’s first Somali-American councilor — black and Muslim — in a city that is increasingly diverse but still 88% white and largely Catholic. She won nearly 70% of the vote. And she did so while a social media campaign circulated racist comments about her, disparaged her background and bombarded the internet with an unflattering photo taken of her when she was 15.

Khalid’s victory was covered by CNN, Washington Post, Fortune, Christian Science Monitor and BBC, in addition to every major news outlet in Maine.

Abigail Fisher Williamson, a Trinity College political scientist who has extensively studied the Somali community in Lewiston, called Khalid’s win “a real milestone” for the city.