Yesterday afternoon I got to witness some Texas history being made.
While many people have heard of the 17 African American women being elected to the judicial benches in Harris County, another story being missed is that we had a large group of Asian American judges running for office in this cycle as well.
One of those judges who was successfully elected was Rabeea Sultan Collier. This was her second run for a judicial bench. She lost a Democratic primary runoff for the 11th District bench in 2016.
Her second run was much more successful. She overwhelmingly won the 2018 Democratic primary race for the 113th District Court seat, and comfortably defeated the Republican incumbent Michael Landrum in the November midterm election.
The TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law grad has been a practicing attorney for 12 years. She's served as a board member of the Harris County Democratic Lawyers' Association, the Association of Women Attorneys, and served on the State bar of Texas' Women in the Profession Committee.
During the 2018 cycle, Collier made history on multiple fronts with her November 6 win. She became the first person of Pakistani descent and the first Muslim woman to ever win a Texas judicial bench.
I had the honor and distinct pleasure of watching Rabeea's investiture ceremony yesterday inside a packed Harris County Civil Court building ceremonial courtroom in which she took the oaths of office.
As of Wednesday morning, she began writing her own chapter of the distinguished history of the 113th District Court. She is only the second woman ever to serve as a judge in this court.
Along the way she will serve as a role model and a leader to many inside and outside her community
Congratulations Judge Collier! It was an honor and a pleasure to be there to witness history and meet your family. I know you will be an outstanding judge, and continue to be a trailblazing leader in our community.
