indica News Bureau-
Congressman Ro Khanna, California’s 17th district, has endorsed fellow Democrat Nabilah Islam in her campaign for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District seat, the campaign said in a news release.
A supporter of Medicare for All, student loan forgiveness, and the Green New Deal, Islam, a 30-year old Muslim running in the Democratic primary, has filed a petition with the Federal Election Commission requesting an advisory opinion on whether she can spend campaign funds on healthcare insurance, which, according to the campaign, she does not now have. Islam has said a ruling in her favor would remove a major financial obstacle preventing working-class candidates, women, and people of color from running for office, according to the news release.
“Nabilah Islam is a bold progressive voice and a champion for working people — and I’m proud to endorse her for Congress in Georgia’s 7th District,” Khanna said in the release. “As the daughter of working-class Bangladeshi immigrants, Nabilah knows what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and to fight with health insurance companies for months on end. We need leaders in Washington who will put working people over corporate interests — and Nabilah is the progressive champion Georgians deserve.”
Islam, the daughter working-class Bangladeshi parents — her father was an IRS fclerk and mother a fast-food worker, according to published reports — praised Khanna in the release as a South Asian role model who “knows that Democrats must be bold and never compromise our values if we want to make real change for working people in Washington.”
A former Walmart employee, Islam worked her way through Georgia State University, the campaign said.
In 2018, Georgia’s 7th district re-elected Republican Rep. Bob Woodall, in office since 2011, in one of the closest Congressional contests that year and the closest a Democrat has come to winning the seat since the district’s creation in 1993.
If elected, Islam would be the first Bangladeshi woman to serve in Congress, and the third Muslim woman in Congress, according to reports.
Islam owes nearly $30,000 in student loans and has no health insurance, according to the release.
Islam has a growing list of endorsements, including from Indiana Congressman André Carson, former Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson, the Democratic Socialists of America and Occupy Democrats, the release said.
Islam’s wrote an op-ed published on TeenVogue.com on Jan. 30.
