The Muslim Vote Comes of Age

Both political parties can benefit from courting the Muslim vote

BY NAFEES ASGHAR

Nehls with his taskforce members (l-r) M. Nihad, Asim Nasir, Z. Gire, Saleema Gul, Troy Nehls, and Nafees Asghar

AMuslim American taskforce formed after a few community leaders in Texas District 22 found out that the Democratic nominee Sri Preston Kulkarni was being backed by U.S.-based supporters and financiers seemingly aligned to the Indian fascist RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), to support the Republican candidate, Troy Nehls.

This led them to join Troy Nehls’ Muslim Task Force, comprised of young Muslim volunteers.

The challenge they faced was massive: Emgage (https://emgageusa.org), which claims to represent Muslims, had endorsed the Democratic candidate in 2018, and the Democrats had registered many new voters. Moreover, they were doing their best conducting a massive campaign to tie Nehls to every one of Trump’s anti-Muslim statements made during his 2016 election campaign and as president, as well as the Muslim travel ban and the belief that a Blue “wave” was coming.

As a result, Nehls aggressively reached out to Muslims and started visiting mosques. His task force’s dedicated members spent a lot of time on social media, phone banking and block walking to chip away at Kulkarni’s votes.

Almost 80% of the district’s 25,000+ registered Muslims voted. A vast majority of them voted for Nehls, who won by around 29,000 votes.

Interestingly, most of these Muslims had voted Democratic in 2018.

According to Associated Press exit polls (Nov. 6, 2020) Trump’s support among Muslim American appears to have increased: 35% for Trump and 64% for Biden. CAIR’s poll found that 17% of Muslims voted Republican, up by 4% from its 2016 poll (https://apnews.com/article/votecast-trump-wins-white-evangelicals-d0cb249ea7eae29187a21a702dc84706).

There are several estimates of the Muslim American population; however, a realistic estimate indicates that there are over 7.5 million Muslims living in the U.S.

Republicans realized the importance of this community’s vote when George W. Bush first ran for president in 2000, for the Muslim vote delivered Florida to him. But even though the Republican Party quickly realized the potential of this hidden vote, they decided to ignore it.

Fast-forward 20 years, and this vote has multiplied many times over. For instance, in 2018, from Houston Beaumont alone, Muslim Americans raised about $4 million for Hillary Clinton. Muslim voters and their grassroots volunteers flipped Texas’ 7th Congressional

District for Lizzie Fletcher (D) and almost flipped District 22 against Pete Olson (R) in 2018. They, along with Muslim children, were Beto O’Rourke’s (D) army that almost got him elected in 2018 after junior U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s (R) anti-Muslim remarks.

In return for all this work, the Obama administration appointed exactly zero Muslim Americans to federal posts. On foreign policy, the administration engaged in the endless wars that have cost so much American blood and treasure, thereby creating budget deficits, and made boat people out of respectable middle-class and other Libyan, Syrian and other families. have had far-reaching consequences in terms of stabilizing those countries destabilized by the Obama administration. Some argue that Muslims, along with Republicans, are generally pro-life, pro-marriage and fiscally conservative and thus that party’s fiscally conservative policies resonate better with them. Republicans believe that this is especially true for health care, an area they believe needs more competition at every level. In fact, Trump was the first president to ask Big Pharma to ensure that our country gets the same low price they give to other countries. Candidate Trump’s negative rhetoric leading up to the 2016 election, as well as his subsequent Muslim Ban once in office, alienated Muslim voters. In fact, their departure may have cost him the election in battleground states, even though more Muslims voted for him in 2020 than in 2016 (“Majority Of Muslims Voted For Biden, But Trump Got More Support Than He Did In 2016,” NPR, Dec. 4, 2020). Biden’s constant wooing of the Muslim vote helped him narrowly creep to victory

EVEN THOUGH A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF in those same states. Immediately after the elections, some Muslim leaders went MUSLIMS VOTED FOR BIDEN, ONLY TIME WILL TELL IF ANY OF THEM WILL BE INCLUDED IN HIS on national TV, claiming that 1 million Muslims in 12 states had voted early, thereby grossly understating the total Muslim ADMINISTRATION. ALSO, WE STILL DON’T KNOW vote. It is estimated that more than 2 million Muslims cast their votes in Arizona,

WHAT DOMESTIC OR FOREIGN POLICIES HE Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New WILL DIRECT TOWARD MUSLIMS AND MUSLIM- York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Wisconsin. MAJORITY COUNTRIES. When we look at the total number of Muslim votes cast after adding those 40 other states, especially those with large Muslim populations, such as California, one can

Their policies, especially those specifically designed safely say that the actual number of votes cast was a multiple of 2 million. for the Muslim world, destabilized vast swaths of it. In 2020, 169 Muslims ran for office, 22 of them for Congress. The three already For example, the regular drone attacks on Pakistan, in Congress were reelected — there were no new faces. Organizations such as not to mention the almost daily bomb blasts in its Emgage, played a role in driving the 2020 vote to Biden, but it seems to have territory orchestrated primarily from Afghanistan, gotten nothing in return. resulted in some 70,000 dead Pakistanis. Besides this, An analysis of which party Muslims voting patterns voted for in 2020 reveals there were consistent destabilization efforts in Turkey, that whichever party received it benefited. all in the name of promoting “democracy.” A case in point is Texas, home to 500,000 Muslims. In 2018, the Muslim vote

Trump campaigned on ending these endless wars went to Fletcher and helped defeat incumbent John Culberson (R) in district and, once in office, started talking about carrying out 7 and to Kulkarni, who almost defeated Pete Olson (R) in district 22. In 2020, his promise. He was criticized for saying top Defense an estimated 18,000 Muslim votes helped Fletcher survive the onslaught from Department leaders want to keep waging wars in order Wesley Hunt (R) and the Republican Party in district 7. to keep defense contractors “happy” (https://abcnews. District 22 was a totally different story in 2020. Democrats spent millions go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-pentagon-lead- trying to flip the seat, which they had been trying to do for over three years. ers-war-contractors-happy-72870085). In summary, both Fletcher and Nehls managed to win with the Muslim vote.

The reality is that so far the U.S. has spent more The year 2020 shows that there are a several million Muslim voters in the U.S. than $8 trillion fighting endless wars without win- The percentage of eligible Muslim voters in Texas, who actually vote appears to ning any of them. This brings to mind the rhetorical be 80%; however, their turnout in primaries — around 20% — still appears to phrase “light at the end of the tunnel” used by so many be rather low. political and military figures during Washington’s war In the 2020 elections, Muslim voters in Texas and other states showed that in Vietnam. For half a trillion dollars, every house they can help win elections or flip seats for either party. in Afghanistan would have been flying an American Even though a large percentage of Muslims voted for Biden, only time will tell flag in thanks. if any of them will be included in his administration. Also, we still don’t know

While the U.S. was fighting wars in what some what domestic or foreign policies he will direct toward Muslims and Muslimpeople consider Stone Age countries, other nations like majority countries. ih Russia and China were modernizing their weaponry Nafees Asghar is co-chair of Troy Nehls Muslim American Task Force, which helped swing the Muslim vote and improving their military forces. towards Nehls. He is an account manager with a Texas oil and fuel distributor.

This desire to end these endless wars, modernize He would like to thank Z. Gire, M. Nihad, Saleema Gul, Baseer Pirzada, Rizwan Khaja and Shakeib Mashood the military and improve veterans’ conditions would for their assistance.