Lewiston City Council’s first Somali-American member of the board has announced her plans to step down from her position, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Safiya Khalid, who made history when she was elected to the position in 2019, made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday night.
Khalid, who told the Bangor Daily News in 2019 that she was motivated to run by what she saw as a lack of diversity in Lewiston’s city government at the time, said that she wanted to focus on working to elect “anti-racist candidates to local and state offices”.
Khalid said that “doing this job over the past two years has been rewarding and exhausting, inspiring and emotionally draining.” She also said that, in her time on the council, she felt as though she had acted as a lone voice advocating for racial justice and raising awareness about institutional racism.
Although Khalid will not run for reelection, she noted that she would continue to stay engaged in Maine politics. She said that she will continue to work to build a support system for other people who are looking to represent and advocate for the “lives of people who have been taken advantage of by our oppressive systems.”
