Nida Allam

Allam was born on December 15, 1993, in Ottawa, Canada.[3] She is the daughter of immigrants, her father is from India and her mother is from Pakistan.[1][3][4] Allam has two older sisters.[3] When she was five years old her family moved to Brier Creek, a suburb between Raleigh and Durham in North Carolina, after her father took a job with IBM at Research Triangle Park.[1][3] When she was six years old the family moved to the nearby town of Cary.[3] She became a naturalized United States citizen as a teenager.[3] Her mother, Iffat Allam,[5] served as the Chair of the Women's Committee at their mosque.[6] Allam and her mother volunteered at local food banks and helped set up homes for single mothers and refugees in the Research Triangle.[6] A devout Muslim, she did not begin wearing the hijab full-time until she was in eighth grade.[1]

Allam graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School, a magnet school in downtown Raleigh, where she was a member of the varsity lacrosse team.[1][7][8][3] As a high school student, she chaired the Triangle Health Fair, a Muslim student-led campaign to partner with local doctors, chiropractors, and dentists to provide free health care to low-income community members.[3]

She graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in sustainable materials and technology.[1][9] While at university, she founded the NC State For Bernie Club and became Co-Chair of the Triangle For Bernie Club.[3][10]

Allam was inspired to become politically involved after her best friend, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, was one of the three people killed in the 2015 Chapel Hill shooting.[1][11] She had been a bridesmaid at Abu-Salha's wedding that December.[1][10] The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice also launched their own investigations into the shooting. Federal authorities could not find sufficient evidence to charge Hicks with a hate crime. Allam became involved in the grassroots movement and worked as a political director for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, as well as an organizing director for Justice Cheri Beasley's campaign for the North Carolina Supreme Court.[1][9][12] She was the 2016 Political Director in North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey and New York for Sanders' presidential campaign.[6][13]

She is a 2019 alumna of Durham's chapter of the New Leaders Council.[9][14]

Allam ran for Durham County Commissioner on a platform centered on addressing economic inequality. Campaign priorities included a $15 minimum wage for county workers, boosting mental health services in schools and investing in businesses run by women and people of color.[29]

She believes that charter schools have increased racial segregation in Durham schools.[12] As a county commissioner, Allam stated she plans to increase the minimum wage of Durham Public Schools classified staff to U.S. $15 an hour and enact property tax assistance programs.[1][16][12] She has stated that evictions and lack of affordable housing opportunities are also a crisis in the county, and referenced the issue of gentrification misplacing Black families from their homes in Durham's historical African-American neighborhoods.[1][12] Allam has also called for more funding and community investment into Durham Public Schools and Durham Technical Community College, saying that education is tied to economic and racial justice issues.[1] Allam supports organized labor unions.[1] She blames the North Carolina General Assembly for inadequate funding for public schools.[12]

Allam has been criticized for her past statements and tweets in regards to Israel that some have seen as Anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic.[30][28] In 2021, Allam apologized to the Jewish community for her past statements and committed to "a movement for justice and peace, in which anti-Semitism must have no home."[31] While Allam received endorsements in her race from figures like Ilhan Omar, who have been in the past accused of antisemitism,[32] Valerie Foushee, her primary opponent, began to receive funds and assistance from pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC and Sam Bankman-Fried's Protect Our Future PAC, prompting allegations that Foushee's campaign had succeeded primarily due to support from dark money as the race became "the most expensive Democratic congressional primary in North Carolina history".[33]

She lives in Durham with her husband, Towqir Aziz, and two dogs named Otis and Nala.[9][6] She and Aziz met in a Muslim Sunday school.[6] Allam is a member of the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality.[34] She is a citizen of the United States and Canada, and also holds Pakistani citizenship by descent.[35]

In April 2022, Allam announced that she was pregnant.[36] Allam had been pregnant in 2021, but had an abortion due to medical issues.[37]