2021 RFS General Election Runoffs

Election Day is over but we still have five candidates running for down-ballot seats across the country! Take a look at five incredible RFS candidates and learn how you can support their campaigns!

P.S. To get a look at all of of our November 2, 2021 elected officials, click here!

Dr. Aditi Bussells

Candidate For: Columbia City Council, At-Large, South Carolina
Run-off Date: 11/16/2021
UPDATE: ADITI WON!!

Devoting her career to data-driven decision making, using sound science, and most importantly, identifying systemic solutions to complex public health and socio-economic issues, Dr. Aditi Bussells is a fierce advocate for economic growth, community investment, and equitable opportunities in Columbia. She is an ardent supporter of the notion that a healthy community goes hand-in-hand with a healthy economy.

Aditi is a first-generation immigrant who has personally experienced what a thriving community can provide for children and families to succeed. She believes that everyone, regardless of where they came from, deserves to live their best life. It is this belief that has kept Aditi passionate and engaged in public service. Professionally, Aditi is the Director of Research at a statewide non-profit, Children’s Trust of South Carolina where she oversees several statewide initiatives to support family and child well-being. She received her PhD in public health at the University of South Carolina.

Aditi is deeply involved in various Columbia causes. In 2018, she was a key partner in launching ‘Resilient Richland,’ now a county- and city-wide initiative. This past year, you may have seen Aditi knocking doors as a mayor-appointed member of the Complete Count Committee of the City of Columbia for the 2020 Census. She also works with several local community groups, to advocate for civic engagement, tackle food insecurity, and address affordable housing.

Aditi is running to represent the city as At-Large member on Columbia City Council. If elected, she will be the first Indian American woman to be elected to local office in the history of South Carolina. As a public health expert, Aditi is committed to ensuring that Columbia comes out of the pandemic more prosperous, equitable, and vibrant than ever.

Rod Hickman

Candidate For: Mississippi State Senate, District 32, Mississippi
Run-Off Date: 11/23/2021
UPDATE: ROD WON!!

Rod Hickman is a leader, a community advocate, and a candidate for Senate District 32. Rod is in this race because he envisions a District 32 that keeps its best and brightest talents; a Mississippi with an adequately funded education system, expanded access to quality healthcare and Medicaid. Rod envisions a Mississippi his daughter Ari and the next generation of Mississippians can be proud of.

Rod is a founding partner of Hickman Fondren, PLLC, a law firm with offices in Macon and Oxford, MS, an adjunct professor at Tougaloo College and he also serves as the first African American County Prosecutor for Noxubee County.

Jason Dozier

Candidate For: Atlanta City Council, District 4, Georgia
Run-Off Date: 11/30/2021
UPDATE: JASON WON!!

Jason Dozier is a nonprofit professional and community organizer who has spent more than half his life serving others. Jason served as a reconnaissance officer in the Army, serving with distinction and earning the Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal during his tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Professionally, Jason has spent the last decade helping veterans and military families find and secure employment across America. He’s running to represent Atlanta City Council District 4, which includes some of Atlanta’s most historic neighborhoods. Jason’s years of community organizing work have been centered around housing justice, transportation equity, and environmental justice.

Jason believes that safe, stable housing is the foundation of thriving communities, and he has advocated tirelessly for better resources and opportunities for Atlanta’s most vulnerable residents. Jason fought to get streets repaved and for new bus routes in neighborhoods across southwest Atlanta so that our roadways are safe and accessible for our kids and our seniors. Jason also leads the Intrenchment Creek Community Stewardship Council, an organization working to reverse decades of environmental injustice impacting the residents of our south Atlanta communities by fighting displacement and flooding through the lens of equity and inclusion. Jason lives in the Mechanicsville community with his wife and daughter.

Liliana Bakhtiari

Candidate For: Atlanta City Council, District 5, Georgia
Run-Off Date: 11/30/2021
UPDATE: LILIANA WON!!

Liliana Bakhtiari is a longtime SE Atlanta homeowner, a proven problem solver and committed community activist, and the daughter of immigrants.
Liliana knows firsthand about discrimination, growing up, living and working in the South as a queer Muslim woman. Her experiences fueled her path to becoming a community leader, social justice advocate, and activist fighting for women and children’s health issues, environmental justice, and our unsheltered populations. Liliana spent much of her youth traveling the globe, practicing social advocacy, participating in a wide variety of cultural projects, including aiding refugees in building new homes, working with sex trafficking victims and volunteering at orphanages in a total of 26 countries around the world.

In Atlanta, Liliana has tackled initiatives locally including engaging suburban and rural voters during especially critical elections, direct services with unsheltered populations, blood drives, senior partnerships, public art initiatives, and more. Liliana currently serves as a curator of the Atlanta-based art organization Black Futures Matter, while also serving on the boards of PEDS, Georgia Equality, and gloATL. As our next Atlanta City Councilmember, Liliana will fight to close the skyrocketing digital divide and equity gap in Atlanta — the largest in the nation. She will fight to make every Southeast Atlanta neighborhood safer and more affordable. And she will work directly with our community to build an even better, more inclusive Atlanta. If elected, Liliana will be the first queer Muslim person elected in Georgia, and the first gender non-conforming person to serve on the Atlanta City Council.

Jamell Johnson

Candidate For: Little Elm Town Council Place 1, At-Large, Texas
Run-Off Date: 12/7/21
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Jamell Johnson is a father, husband, community activist, a United States Army officer, and currently serving as a corporate compliance manager for a major financial services firm. A man of faith, Jamell is a member of the local Potter’s House of North Dallas, where he attends service each Sunday with his family. Jamell is also a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Jamell proudly serves on the Little Elm Board of Adjustment and is a graduate of the town’s Citizens Government Academy. During his nearly decade tenure in the Army, Mr. Johnson has learned how to lead a team and power through with any task, even when the task at hand gets tough and uncomfortable.

Jamell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Ball State University and is currently attending Loyola University Chicago School of Law, through their distance learning program, with the ultimate goal of attaining a Juris Doctor to practice business law.