Nisha Arora wants to serve the people of Lackawanna County and reform its judiciary. Arora is running for Lackawanna County Judge. Lackawanna County is where President Joe Biden was born and raised. If elected, she will shatter the county’s glass ceiling as the first Indian-American judge elected in the county’s history. It would also be the first time a nonwhite person was elected as judge.
Arora’s parents immigrated from India to the United States in 1978. Nisha was born in 1980. From a young age, she was determined to live the American dream as a lawyer.
“I decided to become an attorney at the age of 8, but I didn’t think about running for judge until recently,” Arora told me.
Arora eventually made her way to Georgetown University, where she majored in government and photography. After attending Villanova University School of Law, she obtained a master’s in law from University College London, where her focus was international arbitration. Arora is proud of her professional and academic pedigree and believes it will allow her to successfully guide Lackawanna County in the 2020s.
“My experience as a law clerk and as a family law attorney allowed me to see firsthand how working with a good judge could make all the difference for not only attorneys but members of our community,” Arora told me. “I am a first-generation American, so with that as my background, I am able to bring a new experience and a new voice to the bench.”
“We also cannot afford to have any more activist judges who legislate from the bench,” Arora added. “The job of a judge is to apply the law as written to the facts, period. Not to interject personal opinion or bias into rulings and decisions.”
Like the rest of the country, Lackawanna County has been experiencing demographic change. Once dominated by white coal workers, it has, in the past decade, become home to many others.
“In my current job, I work with clients on their home purchases and sales. I have seen firsthand the change in our demographics and the expansion, not only generally in our population, but also in our minority and immigrant population,” Arora said. “Many of these clients choose me as their attorney because they are afraid of the treatment they would get from a nonminority attorney. This sad fact made me realize that perhaps we do need to work on some changes here in Lackawanna County in making an effort to commit to inclusivity. I made a commitment to bring more diversity to leadership, and part of that commitment was to run for this position,” Arora said.
That prompted Arora to act when she saw the opening on the court.
“Vacancies come up on this court infrequently. With a 10-year term and almost a 100% retention rate, you have to take the chance when there is an opening,” Arora said.
Rightly or wrongly, Republicans have been notoriously criticized for a lack of racial diversity, both in terms of registered voters and political candidates. Yet, it was Republican values that drew Arora to the party and contributed to her motivation to run for office. Arora’s candidacy also caught the eye of former House candidate Kimberly Klacik and her organization Red Renaissance. They have helped Arora with her campaign.
“My ideals match up with the Republican ethos of the past, particularly with regard to small government, so I chose to continue to align with the reality of my political affiliation,” Arora said.
“I have been registered as a Republican since I was 18 and first registered to vote — so yes, another history-making aspect of my candidacy is that I am the only lifetime registered Republican to run for this position also,” Arora told me. “I knew the Republicans in this area felt defeated and unrepresented because they did not have a candidate for this race.”
Arora already defied history by becoming the first minority to run for the position, to get the Republican endorsement, and to get the nomination. She hopes to inspire more nonwhite candidates to run for office in the Lackawanna community.
“The ever-growing minority demographic has no representation on the bench and very little in other aspects of government,” Arora said. “There are very few minority attorneys in town, and I think the reason for that is there has never been a true commitment to diversity from the bench here. There are no outreach programs, or attempts to get attorneys from diverse backgrounds to work here. The bar has remained insular, and that has to change.”
