| Senator Sheikh Rahman, a Democrat, is the first immigrant and first Asian American to serve in the Georgia State Senate. He is also the first Muslim Georgia Legislator. Elected in 2018, he represents the 5th Senate District in Gwinnett-Georgia's most diverse county. He is the former Chairman of the Gwinnett Senate Delegation. In the Georgia State Senate, Sen. Rahman serves as a member of the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Economic Development and Tourism, Government Oversight, Natural Resources and the Environment and Urban Affairs. During his first term, he was also awarded the freshman legislator of the year by the Democratic legislative Caucus. In his second term, Sen. Rahman was appointed by Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan to Chair the Senate Outdoor Learning study committee. In 2019, Georgia Asia Times named Sen. Rahman 25th Most Influential Asian American in Georgia. In 2020 he was named 100 Most Influential Georgia Muslim by Islamic Speakers Bureau of Georgia. In 2022 and 2023, Atlanta Magazine named him as one of the City's Most Powerful Leaders in Government and Infrastructure. Sen. Rahman grew up in Bangladesh, where his country was devastated by the Bangladesh Liberation War of Independence in 1971. At age 13, Sen. Rahman was kidnapped at gunpoint as a prisoner of war. In 1981, after graduating from high school, Sen. Rahman came to America to attend Central Piedmont Community College. In order to pay for his college tuition, he worked as a dishwasher making $3.35 an hour. In 1995, after a 14-year process, Sen. Rahman became a U.S. citizen and finished his undergraduate degree in Economics and Global Studies at the University of Georgia, where he also served as a Student Senator and President of the Global Studies Association. After school, Sen. Rahman worked his way up through the ranks of the restaurant industry, becoming a corporate executive at Pizza Hut, Dominos, and The Kroger Company. He then embarked on a successful career in retail convenience store and real estate business across Georgia. Sen. Rahman began his political career as a student in community college when a friend invited him to work on a North Carolina gubernatorial campaign. He was inspired to run for office himself by another young man educated in Southeast Asia - Barack Obama - whom he served as an at-large Delegate in 2012. Senator Rahman is a lifetime member of the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Advisor to the Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL), and a member of the State Democratic Party of Georgia since 2010. He is a former member of the Democratic National Committee and was the first Muslim elected to the DNC Executive Committee. He was an unpledged Delegate to the DNC 2020 and served the as a Co- Chairman of the President Joe Biden Georgia AAPI campaign. Sen. Rahman has traveled to more than 35 countries and has received several awards and recognition within the U.S. and around the world for his work. He was a speaker at Inkwell Breakfast Series sponsored by King & Spaulding one of the largest law firms in the world, and a speaker at the Berkeley Forum organized by the University of California, Berkeley. Sen. Rahman lives in Lawrenceville with his two children and wife of 30 years. |