Meet Genevieve Mina, Alaska’s second Fil-Am lawmaker in 50 years

Rep. Genevieve Mina takes oath as the second Filipino legislator, 50 years after Rep. Thelma Buchholdt. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Alaska legislator Rep. Genevieve Mina (D-Anchorage) took office recently, making history as the second Filipino American lawmaker in the state.

Mina, 26, took office nearly half-a-century after Rep. Thelma Buchholdt became the first Filipino in the state’s Legislature in 1974.

Mina was sworn in last January, representing House District 19 in Anchorage, covering the Airport Heights, Mountain View and Russian Jack neighborhoods.

Her mother is an Ilonggo nurse, and her late father, an Ilocano grape farmer and Alaskero.

If one of Rep. Mina’s main concerns is health care, it’s because she comes from a “health care family.”

“My mom is a nurse. She’s the first nurse on her side of the family,” she told Tasha Elizarde of KTOO.

“My brother became a nurse, my sister-in-law’s a nurse, my aunt is a caretaker. All of my immediate family works in the health care industry.”

Rep. Genevieve Mina stands next to her mother, Evelyn Mina, in her daughter’s seat on the Alaska Legislature’s House floor. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Her family ran Genevieve Assisted Living Home for two decades, but her mother lost Medicaid approval for the business, experiencing barriers and discrimination like other Filipino American assisted living home administrators.

As a pre-teen, Mina helped her mother and a group of care administrators’ sue the State of Alaska for shutting down Filipino-owned care homes without due process. They lost the case, but the experience shaped Mina’s concern for health care policy.

While majoring in biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Mina joined the debate team and also her first political campaign. She joined the College Democrats and Alaska Young Democrats and was elected a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Working on numerous campaigns, interning in state and municipal offices and with policy firms in Alaska and Washington D.C. widened her involvement in community groups, health care, public transit and economic empowerment, KTOO’s Elizarde reported.

“Mental health is a huge issue in the Filipino community. I’ve been very open about how my dad died by suicide when I was very young,” Mina told Elizarde.

“There are ways to take pride in who you are. I own who I am, as someone who kind of knows Tagalog but not really, who didn’t grow up involved in the Filipino community, who wasn’t raised Catholic, but I’m just as Filipino as other folks from my community.”