ANN ARBOR – Aidan Sova has become the youngest ever Black person to be elected to public office in the city after winning a seat on the Ann Arbor District Library Board of Trustees.
Sova, 23, announced the significance of his victory in a tweet on Wednesday.
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WE MADE HISTORY! With nearly 27,000 votes, I have been elected to the Ann Arbor District Library Board of Trustees — in doing so, I am now the youngest-ever Black person elected to any office in Ann Arbor! Please accept my sincere gratitude and promise to serve as best I can. pic.twitter.com/q3P9srrodE
— Aidan (@AidanSova) November 9, 2022
The University of Michigan graduate is a full-time Google Solutions consultant, currently serves as a City of Ann Arbor Human Rights Commissioner and is earning his Master’s of Liberal Arts part-time from the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the recipient of both the University of Michigan MLK Spirit Award and the State of Michigan’s Youth Volunteer of the Year award for his work within the local community.
During the election, he ran alongside fellow candidates Catherine Hadley and Jim Leija, all of whom were elected to AADL’s Board of Trustees.
Below were the votes cast for each candidate on Nov. 8:
- Catherine Hadley: 34,538
- Jim Leija: 29,338
- Aidan Sova: 26,896
- Sara Duvall: 20,092
- Sherrie Kossoudji: 15,756
- John Schaeffer: 8,232
In a previous interview with A4 ahead of the election, Sova said he was impacted greatly by the library system as a child.
“I was raised in a single parent, low-income household,” Sova wrote via email. “I greatly benefitted from the community programming and access to information provided by the local library system.
“Beyond my professional accolades and formal opportunities to serve, I am supremely qualified for the position, as my experiences in poverty birthed a dependency on the local library. I will utilize this perspective to advocate for those who rely on the Ann Arbor District Library for similar services.”