Napoleon J. Nelson, Sr. is an American politician. He is a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

representing District 154 in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

Early life

Nelson attended Central High School and graduated in 1998. He then graduated from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 2002 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Computer Science, and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

in 2007.

Political career

Nelson served as Board Director for the Cheltenham school district from 2011 to 2017, and became the Finance Officer for

Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania Cheltenham Township is a Home Rule Municipality (Pennsylvania), home rule township (Pennsylvania), township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Cheltenham's population density ranges from over 10,000 per square mile (25,900 per squa ...

in 2018. In 2019, former state representative

Steve McCarter Stephen McCarter (born February 16, 1947) is a retired American educator and politician. He was a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 154th legislative district from 2012 until 2020. The district wa ...

announced that he would not seek re-election in 2020, and Nelson ran for the open seat. He won a six-way Democratic primary with 39.2% of the vote, and went on to win the general election with 77.5% of the vote. He assumed office on December 1, 2020, becoming the first black state representative for Pennsylvania's 154th District. Nelson currently sits on the Aging & Older Adult Services, Children & Youth, Education, and Finance committees.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Napoleon Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians