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Besa Sharrah, who is the Albanian-American running for the Ohio Senate

2024-03-11 20:16:39Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Besa Sharrah, who is the Albanian-American running for the Ohio Senate
Besa Sharrah

In the elections for the Senate in the State of Ohio, which will be held on November 5, an Albanian-American woman will run for the first time. Besa Sharrah, who is running on behalf of the Republican Party, is campaigning to be a member of the legislature in the state where she arrived as an immigrant in 2005.

In an interview for the Voice of America, she says that her family, persecuted by communism, instilled in her the ambition to fight for the protection of democracy, which is why she became politically active at a very young age, while she has been engaged in republican structures for 11 years. until he received the support of the party to run for the Senate.

In the conversation with the journalist Klementina Cenkollari, she shows her goals in this campaign, but also the reasons that pushed her to get involved in movements related to the Albanian diaspora, such as the movement to ensure the right to vote for immigrants.

Besa Sharrah started her journey in the United States, about 20 years ago.

"I came here to study when I was 17 years old. I came to study at Wright State, in Ohio, for mechanical engineering. There I graduated and became an engineer, I started my career and I started and practiced for 7 years, until I got a leadership position where I led a team of engineers. I also had a career in the IT part for banks, I worked with two companies, JP Morgan and Nationwide Insurance", she says.

The desire to get involved in politics, she says, is not a coincidence at all, as she grew up with the drive to act in defense of democracy. The roots of this are in the suffering of the family before the establishment of the democratic order in Albania.

"I come from a very persecuted family in Albania. I come from the Sharrah family. We were a family that supported democracy at all costs. We supported individual rights and this was something that was against the dictatorial system and for this they executed 7 people from my family, all educated abroad, with a democratic vision for the country, to bring the western perspective to Albania as well", it says. she.

She says that initially, she became part of political activities at the local level, in the city of Columbus, where she lived, but that she constantly intended to be part of various campaigns that took place in a wider area, throughout the state of Ohio. For 11 years, she has been part of the structures of the Republican Party, on whose behalf she will run for the Ohio Senate.

"I am the first Albanian woman here in Ohio, who will become, with God's hope, part of the Ohio legislature, here in America. The president of the Ohio Senate felt that I would be a very good candidate for this part of the electorate, also due to the fact that I am an immigrant, I am what we call a new American".

Asked if it is easier or more difficult to campaign as an immigrant, she says that "we are in a very unique moment. If you asked me for example 10 years ago, being part of the Republican Party as an immigrant was not something that was normal. They even told you, what job do you have there because they don't like immigrants, and others and others. And actually I felt a completely different truth. That desire of the republicans, especially to have immigrants in their ranks, who are not only educated, but also have the background we have of other unique systems, such as the Albanian system, which was a dictatorship".

According to her, this has served as a very good way for people in a position to understand that they need candidates who remind them why America is the land of dreams, why America is the promised land for many immigrants.

"This has reflected on me as a candidate who comes from a country of dictatorship and from a family very persecuted by the dictatorship. I have a different perspective to tell people that dictatorship and democracy are not so far from each other so they should protect our rights with whatever we have and stay vigilant on our democracy", she emphasizes.

Ms. Sharrah believes that the party's decision to run for her is also related to her career in the private sector. She says the electorate in Ohio's 16th district, where she aims to secure votes, faces the same challenges many Americans face nationally today, such as high inflation and education.

"We have unprecedented inflation, at least as long as I've lived here. We have also seen an increase in house prices that has made it even more difficult for the citizen to have a clear and calm economy for the way he will live. Also, education and schools continue to be a big part of my advocacy.

While continuing her political activity in the United States, Ms. Sharrah has also been active in issues affecting the Albanian diaspora, such as the right of immigrants to vote.

"The constitution of a country must be implemented in its entirety. The right to vote for the diaspora is a right guaranteed in the Constitution. And at this moment we do not have this right. I am an Albanian-American and my wish is that these ties continue with Albania, especially in these delicate moments for Albanian democracy. As long as the vote of the diaspora is not implemented, I think that the Albanian state is in complete contradiction with the Albanian Constitution and for this reason I support the vote of the diaspora, she emphasizes.

Asked what she would say about winning this election, she says it would be a dream come true.

"It would be the crowning of a very, very long dream. This is a dream, it is a dream that I feel and day by day I think about this part.

The first and most important would be the fact that finally a citizen who came from another country, came here, not born here, will have the opportunity not only to observe from the side the drafting of laws in her country, but now to be part of the laws bringing a different perspective, bringing a different narrative. This is also related to the fact that we are in a very unique moment in the American state. The American state is a state of immigrants. I think it's only fair to have people who, like me, love this country, want to see it continue on the right path and preserve that American dream that we all came here for."


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