First Cambodian American mayor selected in US

Officials in Lowell, Massachusetts, selected city councilor Sokhary Chau as its new mayor on Monday, reportedly making him the first Cambodian American mayor in the U.S.

The Lowell City Council unanimously chose Chau, 49, to serve as mayor of the town, according to The Associated Press. In addition to being the nation’s first Cambodian American mayor, he is also the first Asian American individual to assume the position of mayor in Lowell.

The AP reported that Chau is the first Cambodian American mayor in the U.S., citing the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

In remarks after being sworn in, Chau reflected on the unique opportunities he has been afforded in the U.S.

“God bless America, right? I was a refugee, now I’m mayor of a major city in Massachusetts,” Chau said, according to the AP.

“I don’t know if that could happen anywhere else in the world. I’m still trying to absorb it,” he added.

Chau, who works for the U.S. Social Security Administration, told the AP that he was about nine years old when his family first put down roots in Pittsburgh, Pa.

They later traveled to Lowell in the mid-1980s, where they joined an expanding Cambodian population. The city currently has more than 115,000 residents, almost 25 percent of whom are Asian. It is also the location of the second-largest Cambodian community in the U.S., the AP noted.

Chau attended the Phillips Academy boarding school in Andover, Mass., after receiving a scholarship. He later studied economics and political science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., according to the AP, where he also received a scholarship.

Chau was selected to serve as mayor after a lawsuit in federal court pertaining to the city’s election process entered into a settlement, the AP noted.

Plaintiffs reportedly argued that the city’s election process breached the voting rights of minority residents, who account for almost half of the city’s population.

The settlement led the city to amend its election process last year, which resulted in the most diverse group of office holders the city had seen, the AP reported, citing Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director at a group that brought the lawsuit in 2017.