The first Marshall Islands woman to run for elected office in the state of Arkansas had her name on the ballot as Americans went to the polls for the mid-term election Tuesday this week (Wednesday RMI date).
“I made history in Arkansas yesterday at the polls by voting for me!” said long-time Arkansas resident Faith Laukon in a social media post. “I’m the first Marshallese-American woman to run in the state of Arkansas, the Midwest and 48 other states.”
She recognized the first Marshallese-American woman to run for elective office in the US, Shimiko Montgomery, who made history in 2019 when she ran and won a seat on her local school board in Oregon.
The Journal reported on that in the June 7, 2019 edition of the newspaper. The Journal reported: “The first Marshallese person to win a US public election is Shimiko Montgomery, the daughter of Sam and Elizabeth Nott Montgomery (of Mili). She won her election to the Ben-La Pine School Board in Oregon, receiving 11,048 votes to 8,349 for her challenger.”
Faith said that Shimiko “was one the the first to reach out to encourage me. I feel privileged to have my name associated with some of our nation’s first Marshallese-Americans.”
She mentioned US Army veteran Michael Mapa, the first Marshallese-American male who ran in the 2024 election for justice of the peace in Arkansas’ District 6 “who has been my rock and biggest supporter.”
Faith is also running for the post of justice of the peace. A justice of the peace in the US is a local judicial or public officer who presides over minor legal matters, small-scale civil disputes, and petty criminal infractions, such as traffic violations.