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An African-American of Ghanaian descent, Gabe Felix Kofi Amo, has been elected into the United States’ Congress.
He will be serving Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District and is the first black congressman to do so.
In an interview with Good Morning America, the congressman said his election to office means a whole lot to him.
“When I look at the struggles of my parents, my dad from Ghana, my mom from Liberia, the hard work they’ve put in, my dad owning a liquor store, my mom as a nurse, it is a dramatic leap to go from that in one generation to having their son as a member of the United States’ House of Representatives,” he said.
Gabe grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and is the son of a Ghanaian and Liberian immigrants.
He graduated from Moses Brown School in Providence, where he was President of the Student Senate and received the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Civic Leadership Award.
At Wheaton College, Gabe received a Truman Scholarship for public service and, after graduating, received a Marshall Scholarship to study public policy at Oxford.
He later served in the White House under Barrack Obama in the Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs as a liaison to Governors and state elected officials.
Gabe was then appointed by former Rhode Island Governor, Gina Raimondo as Director of Public Engagement and Community Affairs.
He served as Governor Raimondo’s principal advisor on outreach to businesses and labor, faith groups, local government, grassroots organizations, and communities of color.
Most recently, Gabe served as the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs and Special Assistant to the President, working as President Biden’s principal liaison to mayors and local elected officials.
