Concord Man, Former Afghan Refugee Now A Reporter Covering US Presidential Campaign
by Christin Ayers and Jennifer Mistrot
(KPIX 5) -- As presidential candidate Montana Gov. Steve Bullock put on a wireless microphone during a recent campaign stop, he teases the budding reporter from Concord who is about to conduct the interview.
"They are doing a story on Musadiq. Oh, so we are only here for you today Mus!" joked Bullock to Students Rising Above scholar Musadiq Bidar. "It will be all about Mus. It's Mus' day in Iowa."
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Bidar is embedded on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa for CBS News. He's criss-crossed the state, covering political heavyweights like South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Vice-President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and more.
"I never thought I would be in television reporting," explained Bidar. " I knew I wanted to be a journalist, I knew I wanted to be a reporter. I never imagined how that would pan out."
It's an opportunity that almost didn't happen for Bidar, a child of Afghan immigrants.
"I came here with nothing," recalled Bidar. "I remember when my first few months my brother and me would walk around parking lot(s) looking for quarters because it was fascinating to me that people would just leave money on the streets."
Back in Afghanistan, Bidar's family lived in fear of the Taliban. When their home was bombed and his grandfather killed, they escaped to a refugee camp in Pakistan before coming to America, eventually settling in the Bay Area. Bidar excelled in school, and found Students Rising Above.
"It's because of SRA that I'm here, that I have a job now," said Bidar.
Students Rising Above helped with college, seeing to it that Bidar graduated from George Washington University in Washingon, D.C. But it was his love of politics and journalism that got Bidar to Iowa, reporting on those who hope to be the next President of the United States of America, on the road to realizing his own version of the American Dream.
It's a lot of driving, a lot of hours, a lot of video that I shoot but it's always very rewarding," said Bidar. "I couldn't imagine doing anything else."