American Muslims in the 2018 Midterms
A Year of Firsts, and Historic Turnout!
In this historic election year, 49% of eligible voters voted in the first midterm election ever to have more than 100 million voters. We haven’t had a turnout percent this high since 1966, and you’d have to look all the way back to 1914 to find an election with more than 50% participation. With some votes in GA, TX, and FL still being counted there’s a chance this election will break that record.
It was a record year for Muslim involvement, too. Jetpac has confirmed at least 128 American Muslims ran for office in this cycle. Numbers haven’t been that high since 2000, when about 700 Muslims ran, and 153 were elected.
Read the full report in collaboration with CAIR and MPower Change here.
Below, we’ve broken down the campaigns of American Muslims across the country at the Federal/Statewide, State Legislative, County, Judiciary, and Municipal levels. Click the links to jump to those sections.
We’ve pulled this information from a number of sources—let us know if we’ve made a mistake, or forgotten to add anyone. We’ll be updating the list as we get more results.
Federal and Statewide Races
Candidate | District | Result |
---|---|---|
Agha Khan (R) | NJ 10th Congressional District | LOST |
Andre Carson (D) | IN 7th Congressional District | WON |
Ilhan Omar (D) | MN 5th Congressional District | WON |
Keith Ellison (D) | MN Attorney General | WON |
Omar Qudrat (R) | CA 52nd Congressional District | LOST |
Rashida Tlaib (D) | MI 13th Congressional District | WON |
Mahmoud Mahmoud (NWF) | NJ 8th Congressional District | LOST |
We want to throw out an honorable mention here to Ammar Campa-Najjar, who lost his Congressional bid against Duncan Hunter (R) in CA’s 50th Congressional District. Throughout his campaign, Campa-Najjar was attacked as being Muslim—despite having converted to Christianity in high-school—and Hunter, who was indicted for alleged campaign finance abuses, ran one of the most anti-Muslim smear campaigns in recent history against Campa-Najjar.
Campa-Najjar received approximately 46% of the vote on Tuesday, according to unofficial results.
Of the above wins, we have a lot of firsts for American Muslims: Rashida Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress, Ilhan Omar will be the first Somali woman, and—without getting into the exact times their races were called—they’re both the first American Muslim women to be elected as members of the House of Representatives. Keith Ellison will be the first American Muslim State Attorney General, and the first American Muslim elected to statewide office.
State Legislative Races
Candidate | District | Result |
---|---|---|
Abbas Akhil (D) | NM State House District 20 | WON |
Abdullah Hammoud (D) | MI State House District 15 | WON |
Aboul Khan (R) | NH State House Rockingham 20 District | WON |
Aisha Yaqoob (D) | GA State House District 97 | LOST |
Ako Abdul-Samad (D) | IA State House District 35 | WON |
Amir Malik (D) | MN State House District 37B | 50/50 |
Annisa Karim (D) | FL State Senate District 28 | LOST |
Charles Fall (D) | NY State House District 61 | WON |
Hana Ali (D) | TN State House District 45 | LOST |
Hodan Hassan (D) | MN State House District 62A | WON |
Jason Dawkins (D) | PA State House District 179 | WON |
Johnny Martin (D) | AZ State House District 25 | LOST |
Mohamud Noor (D) | MN State House District 60B | WON |
Mujtaba Mohammed (D) | NC State Senate District 38 | WON |
Nasif Majeed (D) | NC State House District 99 | WON |
Naveen Malik (D) | SD State House District 31 | LOST |
Rizwan Ahmed (D) | FL State House District 111 | LOST |
Robert Jackson (D) | NY State Senate District 31 | WON |
Safiya Wazir (D) | NH State House Merrimack 17 District | WON |
Sheikh Rahman (D) | GA State Senate District 5 | WON |
While we didn’t get all the wins we wanted, it can’t be stressed enough that each and every one of these candidates had a victory—regardless of the numbers that came in yesterday. These are our community leaders, and they fought so hard for their voices to be heard. Congratulations to each and every one of you.
Quick note: Amir Malik’s race in MN’s 37B District is within 100 votes. While the unofficial results are predicting a win for his opponent, it’s still very close.
Have we missed anyone? Made a mistake? Let us know!
County Level Races
Candidate | District | Result |
---|---|---|
Abdelnasser Rashid (D) | IL Cook County Board of Commisioners District 17 | LOST |
Abdul "Al" Haidous (D) | MI Wayne County Commission District 11 | WON |
Assad Akhter (D) | NJ Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders | WON |
Babur Lateef | VA Prince William County School Board | WON |
Cheryl Sudduth | CA West County Wastewater District Director | WON |
Hadiya Afzal (D) | IL Dupage County Board District 4 | LOST |
Hanna Omar (D) | IN Bartholomew County Council District 1 | LOST |
Mohammad Ramadan | NJ Passaic County Board of Education | WON |
Omar Kadir (D) | TX Williamson County Commission Treasurer | LOST |
Ruta Jouniari (D) | FL Sarasota County Commission District 2 | LOST |
Sabina Taj | MD Howard County Board of Education | WON |
Sadia Gul Covert (D) | IL Dupage County Board District 5 | WON |
Sam Baydoun (D) | MI Wayne County Commission District 13 | WON |
Zahra Suratwala (D) | IL DuPage County County Board District 1 | LOST |
Maybe it doesn’t need to be said, but it should be: everyone on this list did an amazing job organizing their communities. These county-level races are tough, and you all deserve a round of applause for your work!
Judiciary Races
Candidate | District | Result |
---|---|---|
Adel A. Harb | MI Wayne County Circuit Court | WON |
George Abdallah Jr. | CA Superior Court of San Joaquin County, Office 12 | WON |
Halim Dhanidina | CA Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three | WON |
Rabeea Collier | TX District Courts, 113th District | WON |
Sam Salamey | MI District Courts, District 19 | WON |
Shadia Tadros | NY Syracuse City Court | LOST |
Shahabuddeen Ally | NYC Civil Court, NY County | WON |
Municipal Races
Candidate | District | Result |
---|---|---|
Aamina Ahmed | MI Plymouth Canton Community School District | LOST |
Adel A. Mozip | MI Dearborn School Board | LOST |
Ahmad Zahra | CA Fullerton City Council District 5 | WON |
Aisha Wahab | CA Hayward City Council | WON |
Alaa "Al" Abdel-Aziz | NJ Paterson City Council Ward 6 | WON |
Alaa Matari | NJ Prospect Park Borough Council | WON |
Ali Taj | CA Artesia City Council | WON |
Billy Amen | MI Dearborn School Board | LOST |
Dawn Haynes | NJ Newark Public Schools School Board | WON* |
Fardousa Jama | MN Mankato City Council Ward 3 | LOST |
Farrah Khan | CA Irvine City Council | WON |
Fauzia Siddiqui Rizvi | CA Corona City Council District 4 | LOST |
Haseeb Javed | VA Manassas Park City Council | WON |
Hassan Abdul-Rasheed | NJ Orange City Council West Ward | LOST* |
Hazim Yassin | NJ Red Bank City Council | WON |
Javed Ellahie | CA Monte Sereno City Council | WON |
Jihan Aiyash | MI Hamtramck Public School Board | WON |
Khalil El-Saghir | MI Dearborn School Board | LOST |
Khodr Farhat | MI Dearborn School Board | LOST |
Maimona Afzal Berta | CA Franklin-McKinley School Board | WON |
Mo Seifeldein | VA Alexandria City Council | WON |
Mohamed Al-Hamdani | OH Dayton Public Schools Board of Education | WON |
Mohamed Khairullah | NJ Prospect Park Mayor | WON |
Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman | NJ Paterson City Council Ward 2 | LOST |
Mohammed Raqeeb | NJ Piscataway Township Council Ward 4 | LOST |
Rashon Hasan | NJ Newark City Council Central Ward | LOST* |
Regina Mustafa | MN Rochester City Mayor | LOST |
Sabina Zafar | CA San Ramon City Council | WIN |
Salim Patel | NJ Passaic City Council | WIN |
Salman Bhojani | TX Euless City Council Place 6 | WON* |
Shahanaz Arjumand | NJ Teaneck Township Board of Education | LOST |
Shayan Elahi | TX Irving City Council Place 6 | LOST* |
Yasir Khogali | MI City of Plymouth District Library Board | WON |
An asterisk (*) denotes that this election result may have been from earlier in 2018.
We’re still waiting on results for some local elections—stay tuned. Although there are highlighted “firsts” above, they’re just a selection based on news media we could find. Every single one of these candidates did an amazing job as organizers!
If we’ve missed anyone, or made a mistake, please let us know!