Governor Fayemi Celebrates Nigerian Lady ”Esther Agbaje” Who Won An Election In The US

by Jenny Ese Obukohwo
via The Street Journal

OCP note: During her time at Harvard Law School, Esther Agbaje ’17 was a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, where she worked on issues related to housing justice.

In a tweet shared on his handle this afternoon, Governor Fayemi said Agbaje is a proud Ekiti daughter whose parents are from Aramoko Ekiti.

”Congratulations to our Ekiti daughter and Harvard graduate for winning a landmark legislative seat into the Minnesota state assembly. I just spoke to her proud parents from Aramoko Ekiti and extended the best wishes of all our people. JKF”Governor Fayemi tweeted

Agbaje who will be representing District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party, won by a landslide polling 17,396 votes or 74.7 percent of the total ballots cast to defeat her closest rival, Alan Shilepsky of the Republican Party who polled 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 percent of the total.

The 35-year-old Nigerian woman graduated from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., with a degree in political science, holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, and also a law degree from Harvard University.

Agbaje who once served at the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer, charged with managing the rule of law projects in the Middle East, currently works as an attorney in Minneapolis with a focus on general civil litigation and medical malpractice.

Esther Agbaje is an Associate with Ciresi Conlin LLP. She practices in general civil litigation and medical malpractice. She also has experience in class action lawsuits. This year she was part of a team that settled with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to allow prisoners who qualify access to potentially life-saving Hepatitis C medication. Minnesota Lawyer recognized her for this work when naming Esther a 2019 Attorney of the Year.

Prior to practicing law in Minnesota, Esther attended Harvard Law School. There, she spent two years as a student attorney defending tenants from eviction with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Through this experience, Esther developed a passion for housing justice after seeing many of her clients living in unsafe or unhealthy buildings or paying rents they could barely afford. She continues supporting tenants by volunteering with the Volunteer Lawyers Network Housing Court Project in Hennepin County.