Bushra Amiwala (born December 30, 1997) is a Pakistani-American college student at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

who, , is the first Gen Z elected official in the United States, and the youngest Muslim elected official in the United States. Amiwala was a Democratic candidate for the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

in the 2018 Illinois primary election. She lost to the then 16-year incumbent Larry Suffredin in the Democratic primary election on March 20, 2018. Suffredin then encouraged Amiwala to run for public office shortly after she announced her candidacy for D73.5 Board of Education, and was elected in April 2019. Amiwala also became the first Muslim person elected to the board of education seat in her district. In February 2020, Bushra Amiwala was awarded the Asian American Coalition of Chicago (AACC) award for exemplary community service and youth excellence. Bushra Amiwala is known for hosting annual Ramadan Iftar events, which have been attended by notable politicians, including J.B. Pritzker.

Biography

Amiwala was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and lived in the

Rogers Park Rogers Park is the first of Chicago's 77 community areas. Located from the Loop, it is on the city's far north side on the shore of Lake Michigan. The neighborhood is commonly known for its cultural diversity, lush green public spaces, early ...

area until she was 10. Her family then moved to

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

, where she graduated from Niles North High School. She began her political career as an

intern An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

for Republican senator

Mark Kirk Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district fr ...

, and was encouraged by her field office manager, Benjamin Polony, to run her own campaign for the

as a college freshman. She came in second in the Democratic primaries, earning 14,988 votes, a total of 30.6% of the vote in a three-person race. Amiwala began an annual service project on her birthday, and in 2018 made and distributed hundreds of care packages in the Chicago area with Congresswoman

Jan Schakowsky Janice Schakowsky ( ; née Danoff; born May 26, 1944) is an American politician who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat ...

, who endorsed her campaign. Amiwala was named one of

Glamour Magazine ''Glamour'' is today an online women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. For many years a traditional hard-copy magazine, it was founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States. It was originally called '' ...

's 2018 College Women of the Year. In 2019, Amiwala was elected to the Cook County Board of Education from district 73.5 in Skokie. She was reelected unopposed in 2023. Amiwala is a frequent public speaker and has spoken at events such as TEDxDePaul University and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. She is one of the subjects of a documentary called ''And She Could Be Next'' on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. She is also one the female candidates profiled and aided on Amazon Prime's ''RUN The Series.'' She is currently the subject of a

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

documentary called ''Our America: Women Forward''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amiwala, Bushra Living people Politicians from Chicago Women in Illinois politics American politicians of Pakistani descent 21st-century American women politicians 1997 births