Muslim candidates swept local, state, federal and even judicial seats in 25 US states
\n WASHINGTON
\n\u201cEducation is the first step towards empowerment,\u201d says 21-year-old Alisha Khan, who was elected to the board of education in New Brunswick, a city in New Jersey.
\n\u201cI graduated from high school only three years ago, so I know what our generation needs,\u201d says Ms Khan, who is the youngest among those elected this year to state legislatures in US mid-term elections.
\nHer parents migrated to New Jersey from Karachi. \u201cThank you to everyone who helped make this possible. Together, we made history,\u201d said Salman Bhojani, who is a Pakistani-American, like Alisha and Suleman Lalani.
\nMr Bhojani and Mr Lalani made history as the first Muslims and South Asians elected to the Texas legislature. Both are Democrats.
\nNow, \u201cwe build bridges here, not walls,\u201d said Mr Lalani in an apparent reference to the Trump administration\u2019s decision to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border to prevent immigration.
\nTheir victory is also significant because in the Texas legislature, Muslims haven\u2019t always been met with open arms. In 2007, Dan Patrick, then a state senator, boycotted the Texas senate\u2019s first-ever prayer by a Muslim cleric.
\nPatrick now presides over the senate as lieutenant governor.
\nIn Tuesday\u2019s mid-terms, 82 Muslims were elected to federal, state, local and judicial offices across the United States. There are a number of Pakistanis among them. Axios, a news site, reported that a record number of Asian-Americans were elected this year, including several Indians and Pakistanis.
\nThe site did not disclose the exact number, but published several names. Among them are Shri Thanedar, the first Indian-American elected to the US House of Representatives from Michigan, and Aruna Miller, the first immigrant and first Asian-American elected as Maryland\u2019s lieutenant governor.
\nEarlier this week, Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a final count of 82 local, state legislative, statewide, judicial, and federal American Muslim electoral victories in the mid-term polls. It is the highest since Jetpac and CAIR started tracking the electoral progress of American Muslims \u2014 71, the previous high-water mark, was set in 2020.
\nOf the 29 state-level Muslim incumbents, many were the first Muslims elected to their state\u2019s legislature and kept their seats. The results pushed the total number of Muslim state lawmakers nationwide to 43.
\nThose re-elected include Madinah Wilson-Anton, a Delaware state representative, Iman Jodeh, a Colorado state representative, and Pakistani- American Saud Anwar, a Colorado state senator.
\nIn Georgia, incumbent state senator Sheikh Rahman will no longer be the only Muslim in the legislature as two Muslim women won by flipping Republican-held seats.
\nNabilah Islam will become a state senator and Ruwa Romman will represent the state in the House of Representatives.
\nIn a constituency in Indiana, Muslim Democrat Andre Carson made history by getting elected to Congress for a record seventh time.
\nHe received 116,870 votes against his Republican rival Angela Grabovsky\u2019s 53,487 votes.
\nIn Michigan, Democrat Rashida Tlaib was elected for the third time.
\nShe received 196,601, defeating Republican Steven Elliot who received 72,889 votes.
\nAnother Muslim Democrat, Ilhan Omar, was re-elected for the third time from Minnesota. She received 214,217 votes against her Republican rival Cicely Davis\u2019s 70,698 votes.
\nKeith Ellison, the first Muslim Congressman, was re-elected this year as Minnesota\u2019s attorney general, receiving 1,254,369 votes against his Republican opponent Jim Schultz\u2019s 1,233,571.
\nJetpac and CAIR tracked the election results of a record-breaking 146 American Muslim candidates running for local, state, and federal office, including 51 state legislative candidates running in 23 states.
\nIn a statement, CAIR\u2019s National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: \u201cWe are witnessing the next step in the American Muslim community\u2019s political transformation from marginalised voices that were sidelined, or worse, to decision makers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muslim candidates swept local, state, federal and even judicial seats in 25 US states WASHINGTON \u201cEducation is the first step towards empowerment,\u201d says 21-year-old Alisha Khan, who was elected to the board of education in New Brunswick, a city in New Jersey. \u201cI graduated from high school only three years ago, so I know what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-294889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n