By DAVID SHARP
Thursday November 7, 2019
Safiya Khalid speaks at a candidates forum at Geiger Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine.
PORTLAND, Maine — The second-largest city in Maine, home to thousands of African newcomers, has elected a Somali American to its city council following a campaign that was marred by racist attacks and threats fueled by social media.
Safiya Khalid, 23, soundly defeated a fellow Democrat on Tuesday for a seat on the Lewiston City Council.
The attacks didn't seem to faze voters. Khalid won with nearly 70% of the vote to make history in the former mill city.
"I worked really hard. I knocked on thousands of doors. That's what paid off," Khalid told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.
Maine is the nation's whitest state, but it is home to a growing population of Africans who have fled their homeland.
First- and second-generation candidates from four African countries — Somalia, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria — won seats on city councils and school committees across the state, continuing an established trend, said Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition.