27-year-old Democrat and the first Muslim woman to win elected office in North Carolina, Nida Allam, has announced she is running for congress.
During the 2019 sentencing of the shooter, law enforcement officials walked back that framing and acknowledged the Islamophobic and hateful nature of the murders.“After we lost the Deah, Yusor, and Razan, and the way that it was immediately described as a parking dispute, that was what really triggered me,” said Allam.
Allam, who had grown up in an apolitical family, threw herself into politics. In December 2015, she turned down a position at a technology company and began to work with the Bernie Sanders campaign during his run for the Democratic nomination. Allam’s first stop was South Carolina, an experience she said came as a reality check as a Muslim woman in politics in the South.
Allam moved to Queens, New York, for a month before settling back in her home state in 2016. The following year, in January 2017, she was elected third vice-chairperson of the North Carolina Democratic Party and became the first Muslim to join the executive council, where she focused on outreach to communities of color and religious minority groups. A year later, she was appointed to the Durham Mayor’s Council for Women.
I’m young. I’m a person of color. I’m an immigrant, I’m Muslim. All of those things open me up to attacks.Allam’s experience is not uncommon. In 2018, when nearly 90 Muslims ran for public office nationwide as part of the “Muslim blue wave,” there was an increase in anti-Muslim hate in political campaigns. Candidates described being targeted by, including smear campaigns and harassment.