In Tuesday’s U.S. general elections, a Nigerian woman, Esther Agbaje, was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Agbaje, who will represent District 59B on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) platform, an affiliate of the United States, in the 134-member Assembly. The Democratic Party won 17,396 votes or 74.7 percent of the total votes cast to defeat its closest rival, the Republican Party’s Alan Shilepsky, who scored 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 percent of the total.
The 35-year-old Nigerian woman has a degree in political science from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Harvard University.
Agbaje, who served once in the U.S. As an International Affairs Officer responsible for overseeing the rule of law programs in the Middle East, the State Department is currently employed as a lawyer in Minneapolis with an emphasis on general civil litigation and medical malpractice.