Meet Aisha

As your City Councilmember, I fight for working people everyday. I am a champion for the people in our ward, and across the city, that are often forgotten — renters, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, immigrants, students, our unhoused neighbors, and working class people.

I believe that our City Council should look like the people in our neighborhoods: people who know poverty and hardship, people who have student loan debt and have to move wherever they can afford to live, people who know what it’s like to have to help your immigrant parents navigate the world, or to make hard choices like whether to buy groceries or make rent.

That daily struggle of trying to make ends meet is one I have known my entire life. My parents were immigrants with blue collar jobs, who fought to keep their heads above water as they raised my three siblings and me. And sometimes they couldn’t. Things shouldn’t be that hard.

I’m a renter, and I’ve been one for most of my life. I’ve lived in the Wedge and now I live in Whittier. I moved to Ward 10 because it’s one of the last places in the city with affordable housing, but I was able to find a home because we fight to keep our neighbors here. Getting involved in the struggle to protect people’s homes — through the important work of Inquilinxs Unidxs — was a huge part of what helped me find community here. 

I’ve been working since I was young, I got my start in retail and childcare. I’ve spent most of my career working to elect progressive and socialist candidates. I served as Campaign Manager to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and worked on campaigns like Erin Murphy for Governor, Raymond Dehn for Mayor, and Bernie Sanders for President. While working at Take Action Minnesota, I also worked to elect progressives to the St. Paul, Minnetonka, and Duluth City Councils. 

And while serving as the political organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Minnesota State Council, I invested in leadership and power development of our member leaders and led our member driven political action program in support of policy issues related to health care, worker safety, and school funding. I also worked to mobilize our members to support candidates who supported those issues.

In 2024, my colleagues elected me to serve as the Vice President of the City Council and as the Chair of the Budget Committee. In these roles I helped lead the progressive majority to one of the most productive years in recent history. I also created a transparent budget process that began in May instead of August so we could bring Minneapolis residents along every step of the way.

In the City Council chambers, I have seen over and over again the ways community comes together and shows up for one another to push for a more humane and just Minneapolis. By re-electing a progressive majority and a new Mayor, we can make our vision for Minneapolis a reality. That’s what our campaign is about — I hope you’ll join us.

Join me in the fight for a Minneapolis that works for everyone.