Cara Hunter
MLA (born 8 November 1995) is an Irish
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
(SDLP) politician, currently serving as a
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ga, Comhaltaí den Tionól Reachtach; sco-ulster, Laa-Makkan Forgaitherars) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
About
The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 ...
(MLA) for
East Londonderry, a position she has held since 18 May 2020.
Early life
Hunter grew up in the Causeway Coast and Tyrone area
and then moved to the United States at nine years old, attending
Simi Valley High School
Simi Valley High School (SVHS) is a public high school in Simi Valley, California. The school is part of the Simi Valley Unified School District and is located on the east side of the city.
History
Simi Valley High School was established in 1920 ...
in California and studying broadcast journalism at
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...
. She completed her degree at
Liverpool John Moores University.
Hunter was crowned Miss Intercontinental 2017, becoming the first contestant from Northern Ireland to win the beauty pageant, after entering it to honour a close friend who committed suicide at the age of 20. As pageant titleholder, she served as an ambassador for Me4Mental, a mental health charity in Derry.
Career
Hunter was elected to
Derry City and Strabane District Council on
2 May 2019 and was elected Deputy Mayor of Derry.
Hunter stood unsuccessfully in
East Londonderry at the
December 2019 general election. She was coopted to the
Northern Ireland Assembly
sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie
, legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly
, coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg
, coa_res = 250px
, house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral
, hou ...
after the death of
John Dallat
John Dallat (24 March 1947 – 5 May 2020) was an Irish politician in the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) who represented East Londonderry in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2016, and then from 2017 until his death in 20 ...
in May 2020. She is the SDLP's mental health spokesperson.
Hunter was the target of a
harassment campaign during the
2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election
The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three months ...
, in which a pornographic clip, falsely claimed as featuring Hunter, was circulated on social media. Hunter received abusive and sexually explicit messages from men as a result. She described the as an "intimidation tactic" to make her feel embarrassed and humiliated.
Personal life
In October 2021, Hunter revealed that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour on her first day at
Stormont, saying that her condition was not "life-threatening" but "life-altering".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Cara
1995 births
Living people
Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs
Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022
Politicians from County Londonderry
Members of Derry City and Strabane District Council
Social Democratic and Labour Party councillors
California State University, Northridge alumni
Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University
Women councillors in Northern Ireland
Irish beauty pageant winners