Two Ghanaian Americans, Adrian Boafo and Gabe Amo, have won seats in the United States House of Representatives following recent congressional elections. Boafo will represent Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, while Amo has secured a third term representing Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District.
Boafo, 32, succeeds veteran Congressman Steny Hoyer, who retired after more than four decades in politics. He won more than 68 percent of the vote in a district that lies close to Washington, DC and includes thousands of federal employees.
A second-generation Ghanaian American, Boafo was born in Virginia and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Before entering Congress, he served on the Bowie City Council and later became a Maryland state delegate in 2023, representing District 23.
His campaign focused on the cost of living, childcare, and protecting federal workers. He previously worked for Hoyer before contesting the seat after the longtime congressman announced his retirement.
Boafo attended DeMatha High School and the University of Baltimore, where he became the first Black president of the Student Government Association. He also completed an MBA while working on Capitol Hill.
Amo, 38, defeated Republican Kellie Keenan and Independent candidate Pedro DeSouza to retain Rhode Island’s 1st District seat. He first entered Congress in 2023 after winning a special election, becoming Rhode Island’s first Black member of Congress.
Amo is the son of a Ghanaian father and a Liberian mother. Born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, he attended Moses Brown School in Providence, where he served as president of the Student Senate and received the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Civic Leadership Award.
He later studied at Wheaton College, earning a Truman Scholarship for public service, before receiving a Marshall Scholarship to study public policy at the University of Oxford.
Before his election to Congress, Amo held senior roles in the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Under Obama, he worked in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as a liaison to governors and state officials.
He later served as Director of Public Engagement and Community Affairs under former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, advising her on relations with businesses, labour groups, faith organisations, and local communities. He then became Deputy Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Special Assistant to President Biden, serving as the president’s principal liaison to mayors and local elected officials.
Their victories add to the growing political presence of Ghanaian Americans in US public life and bring two politicians with Ghanaian roots into the House of Representatives for the new congressional term.