Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, has extended congratulations to candidates of Jamaican heritage, who won the recent midterm elections.
Topping the list is Westley Omari Moore, who created history by being elected the first African American governor of Maryland, and only the third Black person to be elected governor in America.
Governor-elect Moore, whose mother is from the western parish of Westmoreland, was born in Maryland and largely raised in New York.
He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a master’s degree from Wolfson College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
After several years in the US Army and Army Reserve, he became an investment banker in New York.
A political newcomer, the governor-elect won by 25 percentage points, the largest margin of victory in over 40 years, placing the governorship back into the hands of the Democratic party after two terms.
Marks expressed congratulations on behalf of the Government and people of Jamaica as well as nationals across the diaspora.
She said Jamaicans are proud of Moore not only because of his victory but for having done so with the grace and humility befitting a true servant of the people.
In the process, she noted that Moore drew renewed and positive attention as an exemplar of Jamaicans in the diaspora, representing respected models of responsible citizenship and as able, contributing members of the American society.
There are approximately six candidates of Jamaican heritage, who won elections in Maryland.
Among them is Attorney General-elect Anthony Brown, who will become the first black person to hold the post in the State.
He was the lieutenant governor for eight years and a three-term congressman.
Ambassador Marks lauded Brown for the inspiration that he has provided to so many Jamaicans in the US and all over, as the son of a Jamaican immigrant commanding one of the highest positions in the State of Maryland.
Maryland also celebrated the re-election of State Senator Arthur Ellis, who was born in Portland, as well as two delegates to the Maryland General Assembly – Jheanelle Wilkins from Spanish Town and Regina Boyce.
Marks also extended congratulations to US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, who won her Brooklyn Congressional seat for the ninth consecutive time, and Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee of Texas, who also retained her seat.
