__NOTOC__ Ruqaiyah Khadijah "Kiah" Morris (born March 14, 1976) is an American politician who formerly served as a member of the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives ar ...

for the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

Early life and education

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 ...

, Morris earned a B.A. in Gender Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a graduate degree from Roosevelt University.

Political career

Morris was first elected in 2014 alongside longtime Republican representative Mary A. Morrissey. The two were reelected in 2016 after running unopposed. The only

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

woman in the state legislature, Morris announced in August 2018 that she would not seek reelection to a third term following a campaign of racist threats against her and her family. She resigned the following month, citing as an additional factor the desire to focus on her husband's recovery from open-heart surgery. Morris has also served as director of the Alliance for Community Transformations, based in

Bennington Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous to ...

Electoral history

Personal life

Morris is married to James Lawton. They have a son.

References

External links

Profile
at

Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in si ...

Twitter account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Kiah Living people 1976 births People from Bennington, Vermont Politicians from Chicago Democratic Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni African-American state legislators in Vermont Women state legislators in Vermont 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women