Four politicians of Nigerian descent have won elective positions in the November 3, 2026, midterm elections in the United States.
The winners are Will Jawando, Junior Ezeonu, Oye Owolewa and Carol Kazeem, who secured positions in local government and state legislatures across Maryland, Texas, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.
All four candidates contested on the platform of the Democratic Party.
In Maryland, Jawando won the race for Montgomery County executive, defeating Republican candidate Esther Wells.
Jawando, who previously served on the Montgomery County Council, is the son of a Nigerian father and an American mother.
In Texas, 27-year-old Ezeonu secured a seat in the state House of Representatives for District 101.
Born in Onitsha, Anambra State, Ezeonu moved to the United States with his family at the age of two. He previously served on the Grand Prairie City Council and became the city’s youngest mayor pro tempore.
Owolewa also won an at-large seat on the District of Columbia Council in Washington, DC.
The pharmacist, whose parents are from Kwara and Osun states, reportedly secured 69 per cent of the votes, defeating independent candidate Elissa Silverman, who received 21 per cent.
In Pennsylvania, Kazeem retained her seat in the state House of Representatives for District 159 after defeating Republican challenger Michael Bannon.
She was first elected to the legislature in 2022.
Meanwhile, another Nigerian-born politician, Segun Adeyina, was seeking re-election to the Georgia House of Representatives for District 110.
Early results initially showed him leading Republican candidate Charles Lollar, although the outcome was still being determined at the time of the reports.
The US midterm elections are held halfway through a president’s four-year term. The 2026 elections included all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Senate, alongside governorship, state legislative and local government contests.
