Iranian American Becomes the Youngest Woman Ever Elected to the Phoenix City Council
Politics News Blog, Iranians in Diaspora
Last month, Yassamin Ansari made history by winning a seat at Phoenix’s City Council as the first Iranian American elected to office in the state of Arizona and the youngest woman ever elected to the Phoenix City Council.
The election was contentious and scandalous. One mailer funded by unknown donors that hit mailboxes recently purported to be a voter guide. On one side, a cross-eyed Ansari looked out dimly in front of a Scottsdale mansion. Across from her, a put-together Estela beams in front of a local park. The flyer claimed that Ansari was born and raised in a ritzy Scottsdale development, while Estela was born and raised in Laveen — inside District 7. It also listed one of Ansari's professions as being a "lobbyist for Iranian Americans."
According to Phoenix New Times the flyers painted Ansari as a rich-kid interloper — the 28-year-old candidate who only moved into the district in 2018, and shows over $100,000 in stock holdings and a job at her father's Scottsdale capital management firm on her financial disclosure form. But in fact, Ansari (born in Seattle) did grow up in Scottsdale. Estela was also not born in Laveen as the flyer claims, but in Lima, Peru!
Ansari's parents immigrated from Iran in the late 1970s, and moved to the Phoenix area in 1997. Ansari is a Phoenix native who began her career as a John Gardner Fellow in the Executive Office of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2014, where she served as the youngest member of the climate team that advised the Secretary-General and helped to deliver the historic Paris Agreement. Later, she served as the Director of the Climate Action 2016 Summit in Washington D.C., and as the Deputy Director of Policy for Governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.
Ansari received the bipartisan support of Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC). Her campaign for Phoenix City Council District 7 was endorsed by numerous elected officials, including Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ/9th), Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ/7th), Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, former Mayor of Phoenix Phil Gordon, and many more.
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