ABDULLAH HAMMOUD ELECTED FIRST ARAB AMERICAN MAYOR OF DEARBORN

Wed 03 November 2021:

Hundreds of people cheered as Abdullah Hammoud’s name showed on a huge screen in Dearborn with a checkmark next to it, signifying that he will be the city’s first Arab-American mayor.

Soon after, Hammoud took the stage as the audience surged to the podium late Tuesday, cell phones raised to capture the “historic” occasion.

“To the young girls and boys who have ever been ridiculed for their faith or ethnicity, to those of you who were ever made to feel that their names were unwelcome, and to our parents and to our elders and to others who are humiliated for their broken English and yet still persisted: Today is proof that you are as American as anyone else,” Hammoud said.

Hammoud, a 31-year-old state representative, beat former local official Gary Woronchack, winning 55 percent of the votes on Tuesday.

He will succeed John B O’Reilly, who did not seek re-election after being diagnosed with an undisclosed illness.

Hammoud will be the first Muslim and the first person of color to head the city of nearly 110,000 people, one of the largest in the midwestern state of Michigan, when he takes office early next year.

According to local experts, Hammoud’s victory has national significance because it demonstrates that Arab-American communities can dramatically influence election outcomes and elect their own representatives to work on problems that important to them through increasing political involvement.

Hammoud studied epidemiology and then got a business degree at the University of Michigan, the son of Lebanese immigrants. His older brother Ali’s death in 2015 prompted him to “re-evaluate” his purpose and run for politics, he added.

He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2016 to represent Dearborn. Hammoud has built a reputation as a left-leaning legislator over the last five years, endorsing Bernie Sanders for president in 2020 and identifying himself as a “pragmatic progressive.”

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