A young Hamtramck native is aspiring to represent Michigan’s 2nd district residents at the Michigan State Senate. The Yemeni American News sat down with Candidate Abraham Aiyash for an interview and here are his answers:
The Yemeni American News
YAN: Tell us about yourself?
Abraham: I was born and raised in Hamtramck, my father raised the family here. I am one of eight kids. I am number seven, so I’m towards the end. I had the opportunity to go to Hamtramck public schools, went here, started here. I had the honor to go to Michigan State University, the better school in Michigan and I studied political theory and Constitutional democracy at the James Madison College so it’s the school of public policy and international affairs within MSU. I also studied Muslim studies as a minor as well as pre-medical science. I got involved as a young kid at 13 years old to work on the Barack Obama campaign. I was on the Internet one day and I saw this guy’s name Obama and it’s a funny name so I click on it and I listen to this guy’s speech and I said: “my God, this guy’s amazing”. So I went to Yemen that summer and then as soon as I came back from vacation I said, “I have to help this guy get elected as President.”
I also have a deep passion for the environment so I got involved with understanding how do we let people from Yemen, people from Bangladesh who may not understand what recycling is to help them understand that recycling is important. You can take water bottles and instead of throwing them away you can put them in a recycling bin. The mayor of Hamtramck recognized my work so at age 18 she appointed me to the Hamtramck recycling commission. I was the youngest person ever appointed to a city commission in Hamtramck’s history.
YAN: Why are you running for the State Senate Seat now?
Abraham: I saw an opportunity here where the state Senate seat is open this year and I thought that we don’t have a state senator that is engaging our people. The office of citizen, as Barack Obama said, is the most important office in the country. Everyone has the office of citizen, right? We get to decide what to do and I had the honor of engaging the office of the citizen since I was a young kid. Working with organizations, doing community service working for a state representative. But I recognized that wasn’t enough.
YAN: Why are you going for Michigan State Senate before serving at the local level first?
Abraham: I have done a lot of work with representative Robinson in Lansing to fight for Hamtramck. So near Masjid Muath Bin Jabal there is a toxic waste facility known as US Ecology and they want to expand how much waste they can hold, 10 times the amount that they have now. So I worked with representative Robinson to try to get them to stop because if this ever leaks it’s going to go into our water systems. People can get it in their soil so I know a lot of people from our community grow vegetables and plants we don’t want them to get poisoned because of this company that wants to make more money because they want to store stuff.
I think I’m more effective in other spaces. I’ve seen what I’ve been able to do on the city level. I’ve been very effective, even today as a regular person I’ve actually done things with the trash issue I’ve done things with the water issue. I’m kind of explaining to folks this is why, I’m helping people, the office of citizen understands. This is why your water issues are this way and this is why you have the trash issue. I worked to organize a forum to use Community Development Block Grants so we want to engage the community to say, “We have $200,000 or more to spend in our community.”
YAN: This is a tough district, what kind of tools do you have to get the votes you need to win it?
Abraham: The district is actually quite large and it looks like to win we need about 8,000 votes in the primary so that’s really what we are looking at in terms of having a solid victory there. Honestly, politics goes back to a very basic principle, talking to people. I have been fortunate enough to already build a team. I have three staffers, all of them who are very passionate and have put some of their work to say, “we believe in this campaign, we want to make sure it works.”
We are building a comprehensive field program that’s actually going to launch completely in February where we are going to go to almost every single person and say, “What are the issues that you care about?” “How can I represent you?” and “What are the things you want us to fight for together?” and organizing a system and a structure of getting people out to vote early. I think that’s going to be one of the primary goals is getting folks to vote early. I think our message is strong enough that people are going to say, “We believe in this movement, we believe in this candidate and we are going to take the time and vote.”
YAN: Do you have any endorsements yet?
Abraham: I will say, for example, the Mayor of Hamtramck has already pledged her full support behind me and I think that’s telling.
YAN: What’s your message to the community?
Abraham: This movement is not about me, if it was about me I would fail tremendously. This is about how do we organize different kinds of people from different backgrounds and really work with them to understand how can we change our politics that it engages ordinary people and it helps them understand that this government is theirs? It’s of the people and by the people.
I like to go by “Honest Abe” for this election; I promise to be transparent and as accessible as I can. And I have a lot of inspiration from Abraham Lincoln.
