ECC students gathered in the B180 Heritage room for a networking panel with Representative Nabeela Syed around noon on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. During the panel, Syed shared her story of becoming the youngest member of the Illinois General Assembly and provided advice to students on how to develop as leaders.
About 7 years ago, Syed was a senior in high school. This primitive time in her life brought forth lots of pressures– what college to choose, the career path she would soon take, and the current state of the country. It was 2016, and Donald Trump was running for president. His views and ideas were plastered on every screen across America, which left the country in constant dispute.
“I remember feeling like we had someone running for office that was so different from the values that I had,” Syed said. “He kept talking about things like a Muslim ban, and I decided to wear a hijab by my own choice when I was a freshman in high school. I was so proud of my identity; I was so proud to be Indian, so proud to be Muslim, and I had this man who was on my TV that was running for office that won the presidency that was talking about banning Muslims from this country.”
During her time in high school, Syed described her constant worry of falling behind in her academic endeavors.
“When I was in high school, I always felt like I was that kid that was behind,” Syed said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, my peers are doing x, y and z, and they know what they want to do.’”
Syed took part in her high school debate team, having a passion for using her voice and taking up arguments. Although this hobby of hers was prominent in her life, she hadn’t thought of making it her career. It wasn’t until the 2015-2016 presidential election that would influence Syed’s decision.
“This guy on my TV wants me to be out of politics,” Syed said. “He doesn’t want me to be present in this space, so what should I do? Maybe I should get more involved. Maybe I should fight back and I should force myself to be in this space because if he had it his way, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be running for office. I wouldn’t be a state legislator.”
Born and raised in Palatine, Illinois, 24-year-old Syed is the youngest member and first Muslim woman of the Illinois General Assembly. Syed represents Illinois’ 51st district, with major plans and goals that have already flipped a historically republican district to a democratic status.
“For the past 10-15 years, we’ve only had a middle-aged white man representing this general area that I represent,” Syed said. “So, when I said I was running for office, people thought it was absurd that a 22-year-old hijab-wearing woman- that a woman of color- could even dare to run for office in this area.”
After the persisting support of her hometown friend to run for office, Syed launched her campaign at just 22 years old. After collecting enough signatures to run, Syed was placed as one of the Democratic candidates for the primary election.
The community of Palatine took to Syed’s campaign with confusion, having seen only older, white representatives. There seemed to be a lack of confidence from the general community in Syed’s ability to win her race.
“There was an unfortunate reality of this race where my district is 80% white, and I was running against a white woman,” Syed said. “I remember a day before the primary election, someone came up to me and said ‘Nabeela, at the end of the day, don’t feel bad because people aren’t used to seeing people like you in this area’, and I won with 72% of the vote.”
After winning the primary election in June of 2022, Syed began marketing herself for the general election in November. Syed quit her full-time job in September of 2021 to campaign until the general election. Unlike the primary election where she ran against other democratic representatives, the general election had Syed running against her republican opponent, Chris Bos.
“We won with 53% of the vote,” Syed said. “That was the first time this district completely flipped. This new district flipped from Republican to Democrat, and it was the first time a Muslim woman was in the general assembly.”
Syed was inaugurated in January of 2023, becoming a freshman member and getting in with 15 other newly elected officials. The speaker of the house made Syed the freshman democratic caucus whip- a leadership position that makes her responsible for rallying the freshman democratic caucus’ votes on certain bills and their input on certain issues.
“It’s awesome because we never had this position before so it’s the first time they ever had a freshman democratic caucus whip,” Syed said. “It’s also awesome because I’m the only one among the leadership team that has never served in the general assembly before, I’m the youngest member of the leadership team.”
Since being elected, Syed has passed 9 bills and plans on passing more. The bills she passed focus on prescription drug affordability, students with disabilities and better supporting them, and bills that focus on court document accessibility to help people who have been evicted from their households.
Syed confidently uses her voice to fix the existing issues she observes within these matters. She went on to express her thoughts and reactions to the fleecing of prescription drugs and how she reacted to Martin Shkreli’s price gouging.
“Shkreli increased the price of the pill Daraprim, which is a drug to treat HIV, from $13.50 to $750,” Syed said. “So now you have seniors who are relying on Daraprim, a life-saving drug, and the next day they couldn’t afford it. What my bill does is it prohibits that price gouging from happening in the first place.”
The motives behind her bills derive not only from issues she has observed but from experiences she has had. Before her October 2021 campaign, Syed had scheduled an organ donation on September 1. At her previous job, Syed had asked the HR department what the policy for PTO was for organ donors. Learning that the only options she had were to take vacation time or sick leave, Syed felt compelled to change that. When she joined the assembly, she knew that was a bill she wanted to pass.
“People in the state of Illinois can get 10 days PTO for organ donations because of the bill I passed from the experience I had,” Syed said. “No one should have to fear losing employment or missing a paycheck because they’re doing something as big as donating an organ.”
When asked about the obstacles she faces in her day to day, Syed explained that they tend to come from how people view her age, rather than dealing with gender inequalities.
“A challenge was how seriously people took me,” Syed said. “I think it became an issue of how young I was and how naive I might’ve seemed to people. People automatically discounted me.”
Although most of the issues she has found within her workplace center around her age, Syed recounted times when she would not be invited to meetings as compared to her male Muslim counterparts.
“But it always does not help to be a woman when it comes to people doubting me,” Syed said. “In many ways, I think it helps to be a woman, I think it changes the way I approach things I think my life experiences inform the decisions I make, but people are more willing to doubt you when you are a young woman in this space.”
Syed encouraged the students at the panel that it’s never too late to pursue a goal, explaining that her friend encouraged her to run for office which is what planted the idea in her head. She stressed to the students listening to take a hold of their ambitions no matter what stage they are in their life.
“I never planned my life trajectory to run for office,” Syed said. “So what I want to emphasize is whatever your goal may be, it is never too late to get started. It’s not like you had to spend your entire youth planning out everything to get to your destination. Don’t cap yourself out of whatever goal you have just because you don’t think you’ve been laying the foundation for it. Because maybe you have it in ways you don’t even know.”
Representative Syed continues to protect the rights that Illinoisans are entitled to and is dedicated to paving the way for other politicians. She honors the effort she puts into her work and the trust of her community, building a better Illinois. She expressed the pride that she feels from being a woman in politics and the women that are inside of the political parties, and the importance of embracing the qualities that set a person apart from the rest is something to use to their benefit.
“In the democratic caucus, half of the people are women,” Syed said. “We’ve come so far, we can only go further from here.”
