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American Muslims in the 2018 Midterms

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

County Banner
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!

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