Indian-origin attorney running for county commissioner post in US
1 min read 20 Mar 2023, 03:06 PM ISTMakhija, who was born to parents who immigrated from India, was one of 13 civil rights activists called by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House to offer guidance on civil and voting rights in 2021.
PremiumA 36-year-old attorney and educator of Indian descent are vying for the position of county commissioner in the US state of Alabama, according to a media report.
According to a recent article in The Philadelphia Enquirer, Democrat Neil Makhija is a civil rights attorney, lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and candidate for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.
In addition to being the first Asian-American county administrator or commissioner in any county in Pennsylvania, Makhija, the executive director of IMPACT, a major South Asian civic organisation in the US, will join the Board if elected, according to The Keystone news.
“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.
According to his website, Makhija, who was born to parents who immigrated from India, was one of 13 civil rights activists called by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House to offer guidance on civil and voting rights in 2021.
“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.
Together with some of the highest-ranking officials in the state, Makhija was named one of the "40 under 40" most influential people in Pennsylvania politics by City & State PA.
He worked in the US Senate and the White House after graduating from Harvard Law School with a doctorate in law.
