Oballa Oballa, a former refugee from Ethiopia who became a naturalized citizen less than one year ago, made history this election by winning a city council seat in the southeast Minnesota city of Austin. Oballa, 27, had been campaigning for the seat since the beginning of the year, said he is the first person of color to win an elected office in Austin. His family fled Gambella, in 2003. They spent the next 10 years living in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp. In 2013, the family moved to the U.S., and by 2015, Oballa had settled in Austin. “Just seven years ago, [I] was living in a refugee camp and now am officially elected. I think that will give them hope that one day, when they come to America here, they will accomplish whatever they put their mind to.” His civic engagement with the community began shortly after moving to Austin, Oballa recalled, when he walked to the mayor’s office, announced he was a new resident, and asked if there was anything he could do for the city. “He said, ‘Who are you?’” Oballa recalled, laughing. This would lead to his appointment on the city’s Human Rights Commission; there, he formed relationships with the city’s elected officials.
Once heavily white, the city’s population of 25,000 people has seen a rise in immigrants. Still, Oballa says, in the city’s more than 150 years, no person of color had been elected to local office.
