First Muslim Elected to the Democratic National Committee

Photo courtesy http://eschouston.org/

By Laura Fawaz, contributing writer

SAN ANTONIO, Texas–Ahmad J. Durrani has just been announced as the first Muslim and Asian American to fill a seat as a Super-Delegate for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of Texas.

Currently, the Texas DNC has designated at-large seats for representing African Americans, Hispanics, Youth, LGBT, Rural, and Labor.  With the Texas voter population growing, the DNC had granted Texas a new at-large seat for 2016.  This is a four-year appointment as a Super-Delegate for the 2016-2020 term.  One of the significant aspects of this accomplishment is that this new seat will be designated as the “Asian seat,” meaning it can only be filled by another Asian elected to this seat in any future presidential election.

Durrani is currently Vice President of the Asian American Democrats of Texas and represented the state as a National Delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. He is seen as a Houston-area political grassroots community organizer after Co-Chairing EmergeUSA Foundation Inc., a non-profit, national organization established in 2009. EmergeUSA empowers and trains its constituents in under-represented communities in Texas, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia to be active citizens in grassroots community and political work.  He is presently chairman of the Islamic Education Institute of Texas (IEIT), an ISGH-subsidiary education entity that runs six full time Islamic schools in the greater Houston area.

Durrani won the recommendation of the Asian caucus at the State Convention, as well as the recommendation of the Nominating Committee for Party Officials, and then the approval by the full State Convention.  Next month he will take his DNC Committeeman oath at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Durrani has been a politically active leader in the Asian American community for a decade now. It began when he spearheaded efforts to have Asian and Pacific Island Americans (AAPI) recognized as a representative community, thus granting this permanent Asian seat on the DNC. He then became the Asian representative on the Texas Democratic Party’s State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) until 2014 when he was directly elected by the democrats in Texas 17th Senate District from which he was re-elected to his Committeeman position at the 2016 State Convention.

Members of the DNC are comprised of Democratic State Governors, US Senators, Congresspersons, heads of Democratic State parties, and a limited number of at-large Committee-Persons. Durrani retired from a management position in Shell Oil Company after 34 years of service and he holds a Masters degree in Petroleum Engineering.

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