New York, Mar 20: A 36-year-old Indian-origin attorney and educator is running for the county commissioner post in the US state of Alabama, a media report has said.
Neil Makhija, a Democrat, is a civil rights lawyer and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and is running for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioner, The Philadelphia Enquirer newspaper reported last week.
If elected, Makhija, the executive director of IMPACT, a leading South Asian civic organisation in the US, would be the first Asian-American on the Board, apart from being the first Asian-American county executive or commissioner in any county in Pennsylvania, The Keystone news portal reported.
“It has been my life’s mission to help elect qualified people whose work often goes unnoticed and unrepresented in government,” Makhija said in a statement, according to the report.
It would be an honour to serve in view of the US Supreme Court cases that stripped Asian Americans of citizenship rights, the election law lecturer was quoted as saying in the report.
Born to Indian immigrant parents, Makhija was among 13 civil rights leaders invited by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House to advise on civil and voting rights in 2021, according to his website.
“Under Neil’s leadership, the County would take its voting operations to the next level and see historic levels of voter engagement in our critical county,” state Senator Vincent Hughes wrote in a letter to the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, according to the report.
Makhija was named one of the “40 under 40” most influential people in Pennsylvania politics by City & State PA, alongside some of the state’s highest-ranking government leaders.
He earned his Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School and worked in the White House and the US Senate.
Through his work at IMPACT, Makhija has worked to engage South Asian and Indian American communities in Pennsylvania and provide them with the resources they need to run for and win elected office, the report said.
According to his website, Makhija is currently on leave from serving as Executive Director of IMPACT and as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners manages county property and finances, taxation of county residents, and oversees various departments, including the County Board of Elections. The Board of Commissioners is composed of three members — with one member coming from the minority party — who are elected to serve four-year terms, the report added. (PTI)
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