Has a Muslim ever served in either house of Congress? If so are there any serving now?
Nope, at least not according to al Jazeera.
No. If you google Keith Ellison, the Democratic nominee in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district, you’ll find stories about his nomination that mention he may become the first Muslim elected to Congress.
And he did!
Despite some nasty, veiled racist attacks, he won a clear majority in this election.
I thought John E. Sununu might be in the running, but it turns out he (and his father, a former governor, both of New Hampshire) might be in the running, but they are both Catholic.
Wasn’t he also endorsed by a Jewish group?
I remember that being a pretty early call last week. It didn’t get a lot of a mention as the pundits were still mostly concerned with whether or not the Democrats could get the Senate.
He got an endorsement from a Minneapolis newspaper called American Jewish World.
I live in Ellison’s district and I didn’t notice any racist campaign against him.
There were definitely some big personal issues swirling around him, however. One example is that he accumulated dozens of parking tickets and had his license revoked because he was so slow to pay them. Additionally, Ellison has in the past had associations with strong anti-Semites, but he never was on record himself as an anti-semite. Several prominent Democrats refused to endorse him and some backed his opponent.
All told, his election was never in doubt after he won the Democratic primary (with less than half the vote). The district is very blue and the Republican party may as well not exist here. He did score a far lower percentage of the vote on election day than his predecessor, however, as a third-party candidate won large chunk of votes that would normally have gone Democratic.
Well, you either weren’t paying much attention, or you were letting a lot of items go over your head.
So now you’re recycling all the accusations made against him, after they were rejected by the voters. Have fun.
Well, I certainly agree with you on this! Though I don’t see limiting that to ‘here’.
The predecessor has held elective office here since Eisenhower was President. He’s been 28 years in Congress.
Of course he got more votes. And he hadn’t had a serious opponent for years.