Hurdles for immigrants seeking office
Few are on city councils, school boards
When Lourdes Barroso de Padilla went to fill out the required forms to run for political office, a Columbus city employee asked her how she would like to shorten her name for the ballot.
The implication, she knew, was that it might just be too hard for voters to read her full Latina name.
Barroso de Padilla was caught off guard, but not surprised. The daughter of two Cuban refugees, she has seen how her name –– and the cultural identity that it represents –– have repeatedly come up during her campaign for a seat on the Columbus City Council.
She said she regularly receives offensive comments about her ethnicity on social media. She has heard people question whether a first-generation immigrant is capable of representing the city. At a rally, a resident told her, upon merely exchanging their names, that
“If we don’t have people of color in positions of power, how can we fight against it?” Sam Shim, founder of Ohio AAPI Democratic Caucus
their values would not align.
“People are always going to bristle at things that are different,” said Barroso de Padilla, who is running as a Democrat. “Being an immigrant and a woman of color, I’ve had to deal with this my entire life. It doesn’t change just because I’m now on a public platform.
“Just by using my name — my full Latina name — I’m making a statement,” she added.
With Election Day coming in just a few months, Lourdes Barroso de Padilla is not alone in her hope to become one of the few elected officials in central Ohio with an immigrant background. At least seven first-time candidates who are immigrants or children of immigrants are eyeing a seat at city councils and school boards in the county.
On Tuesday, the group, all running as Democrats, gathered at an event for new American candidates sponsored by the Ohio Asian American and Pacific Islander Democratic Caucus and the Franklin County Adelante Democrats.
This is the largest number that the county has seen, according to Sam Shim, founder of the Ohio AAPI Democratic Caucus. In previous years, there was usually just one or two — if any, he said.
During the past four years, the lack of local political representation by new Americans has been compounded by the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments on the national level, according to Barroso de Padilla. And leaders of immigrant communities are ready for a change.
“On the heels of a Trump presidency, it felt like four years of othering, four years of people not feeling like they belong here,” she said. “We are tired of not having a voice and not having the agency that we know we all rightfully have. I want to have a seat at the table.”
Barriers for immigrants to break into local politics
In Franklin County, approximately 11% of all residents are foreign-born, census data show. Popular destinations for immigrants –– Columbus, Dublin and Whitehall, for example –– see an even higher concentration of foreignborn populations.
But candidates said that there are barely any immigrant officials serving on local city councils or school boards.
It is not easy for immigrants to rise to a position of power when the system has traditionally excluded them, said to Mohamed Ali, who is running for the Columbus City Schools Board of Education.
Originally from Somalia, Ali spent 16 years in a refugee camp in Kenya before resettling in Columbus in 2005.
Growing up, there were no desks or chairs for students in a refugee camp. Ali took his classes while sitting on a rock, taking notes on his lap.
Despite the harsh conditions, though, parents could confidently talk to the teachers in their native language. In Columbus, however, Somali parents often feel ashamed and looked down upon because they are not fluent in English, Ali said.
In 2019, Ali, now in his 30s, took a few Somali parents to a Columbus school board meeting and demanded more-inclusive policies to help the community overcome language barriers and engage in school affairs.
Shortly after the meeting, the district created the department of engagement to offer more resources to all families. But when Ali asked to be part of the team, he was disappointed to be told that he could only get involved as an interpreter, he said.
“The goal was to have a Somali person working at the office so that families can go to that person and talk about the issues they face in the school district,” said Ali, now a father of two.
“We have been in this country for decades now,” he said. “The time has passed for us to just be an interpreter. It’s time for us to be at the table where the decisions are made.”
Immigrant officials who already are in office said that they at times have to put up with discriminatory attitudes from their colleagues.
Shim, born in South Korea, has been on the Worthington School Board since 2013. As the only person of color on the board, Shim said he often felt frustrated by some of his colleagues’ cultural insensitivity.
One board member would often make offhand comments about “walls built by Mexicans,” Shim recalled. And when discussing developers’ plans to build an apartment complex in the area, he would hear his colleagues say, “We don’t want those people moving into the suburbs.”
“We all know what ‘those’ means –– it means Black, poor, immigrant,” Shim said. “If we don’t have people of color in positions of power, how can we fight against it?”
The importance of having diverse decision-makers
Ukeme Awakessien Jeter, born in Nigeria, entered the race for the Upper Arlington City Council out of concerns for her children, aged 4 and 8.
When she moved her family to Upper Arlington in 2018, she was surprised to find out that there was no mention of Black History Month at her daughter’s school. Upon joining Upper Arlington’s community relations committee, she led the creation of the city’s first Black History Month celebration.
“Seeing the dynamics play out where my children are ‘the only’ in situations, or what happens when people see them wear their hair differently, it made me realize that lack of exposure in our community,” she said.
Nidhi Satiani, whose parents came from India, is aiming for a seat on the Upper Arlington Board of Education. She agrees with Awakessien Jeter that having diverse decision-makers is key to the success of children in immigrant households.
“If a student is sitting in a classroom worrying about whether they will get made fun of because of their lunch, they’re not learning,” she said. “If we’re not finding ways to make sure that our students feel like they belong, then we’re not succeeding in the education space.”
Imran Malik, who hopes to serve on Dublin City Schools’ Board of Education, came from Bahrain to Dayton in 1996 to pursue his college degree. Growing up in the midst of the Gulf War, he would tense up every time the air raid siren sounded. In Bahrain, he saw firsthand how community relationships eroded in the face of conflicts and divisions.
This is why, he said, the civil unrest during the last U.S. presidential election was particularly alarming to him. When the Capitol attack happened in January, he knew it is time for immigrant community leaders to step in.
“Since 2016 to today, our nation has grown deeply divided, and we need healing,” Malik said. “That has brought a lot of the same motivation among the immigrant community to participate in politics.”
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for the Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. ycheng@dispatch.com @Chengyilun