Historic win for Lewiston, Maine, as it elects 1st Somali-American to city council

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This week handed a big win to candidate Safiya Khalid and her belief that with persistence, one can overcome adversity.

On Tuesday, Khalid, 23, became the first Somali-American elected to the city council of Lewiston, Maine, winning nearly 70% of the vote.

And, while each of these cities carries unique stories around immigration throughout the last two decades, Lewiston is a special case. Going back to 2002, a little more than 15 years before Khalid's big win, more than 1,000 Somali immigrants and refugees found Lewiston and made it home. Khalid was one of them in 2006.

In October 2002, then-Mayor Laurier Raymond wrote a letter to the Somali community asking its elders and leaders to stop encouraging other immigrants to move to Lewiston. "These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothy, Shifty. … half the time, they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave," LePage said.The emergence of Somali immigrants nearly two decades ago was followed by lowered crime rates, a number of businesses opened by the Somali community as well as the arrival of more immigrants from countries all over the world, according to the Sun Journal newspaper in 2011.

"During the last week before the election, there were a lot of people saying hateful things to me. The entire race turned into a negative campaign," she said."It was a lot of hateful social media and harassment and threats, and it really ripped my heart that people would say these terrible things to someone they never met and didn’t know.""What pushed me were the people I met at the doors. They were the most genuine, kind-hearted people I have ever met.

 

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She’s either Somali or American which is it? We need to stop putting foreign countries in front of American. Stop the divide

Great. Another one to help destroy the fabric of America. Just what we needed.

I heard Ms. Khalid speak Wednesday. What a sharp, humble public servant and patriot! She has a bright future. 🇺🇸👍🏻

🤢

Yet she still has to walk behind her husband in public. How progressive👍🏻

Did we forgot the battle of Mogadishu? 19 Rangers and Delta Force killed trying to take out a warlord and the city turned on us Anyone? No?

EpsteinCoverup

we thought that too safifya ~ but the metal in Walmarts shopping carts are far too narrow to insert anything actually worth st*ealing

Teaching religious beliefs in schools is NOT supposed to be allowed!

Be careful AMERICA, remember that radical Somalians shot down a U.S. helicopter and DRAGGED American bodies thru the streets. Also, weren’t they brought to America as refugees? If so how can a refugee be elected? Same with Minnesota. Would ? Why they want to teach Muslim religion

😡

Did not know women’s oppression is defined as overcoming adversity. KAGA2020 MSM is FakeNewsMedia

Report: Former ABC News employee who leaked video about Epstein story being suppressed has been fired by CBS

Liberals.... nothing about her policy or ideas- just identity politics

walkaway

Wonna you like this design, please buy the Tshirts from this link:

Average IQ in Somalia: 68 Congrats Maine!

N

It worked so well for minneapolis, why not...

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