Bahbah: Arabs, Jews, and Muslims in America’s Midterm Elections of 2018

posted on: Oct 17, 2018

By: Bishara A. Bhbah/Arab America Featured Columnist

Unlike any other previous elections for the US Congress, the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections fields a record number of Arabs, Muslims, and candidates who identify as Jewish. In our definition of Arab, we include both Christian and Muslim Arabs.  In our definition of Muslim, we include only Arabs who are Muslim and non-Arab Muslims.  Hence, there is an overlap between the number of Arab and Muslim candidates.  Among Jewish candidates, we include those who identify themselves as Jewish and those who have Jewish fathers and/or those who have Jewish spouses.

This year’s mid-term elections will be held on November 6, 2018.  This article deals primarily with elections for the US Congress which is made up of the House of Representatives and the US Senate.  The entire House seats are up for election or re-election since Members of the House of Representatives are only elected for two-year terms.  Senators, on the other hand, are elected for six-year terms.  Thus, only one-third of the US Senate is up for election or re-election every two years.

This midterm election will undoubtedly be viewed as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policies and his own personal popularity among voters. Should the Republicans lose either the House or the Senate or both to the Democrats, it will be viewed as a repudiation of President Donald Trump’s policies and, in many ways, his character.

According to the latest data from the Arab American Institute (www.aaiusa.org), there are 3.7 million Americans who trace their roots to an Arab country.  Two-thirds of those live in 10 states – California, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  One-third of Arab Americans live in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York.  Contrary to pre-conceived notions, the majority of Arab Americans were born in the United States and about 82 percent are US citizens.

Based on data collected by the Arab American Institute, there are some 80 Arab-Americans who ran this year in federal, state and local races.  Many of them won their primaries and are headed for the general elections of November 6.

According to the ABC News Network, there are more than 90 Muslim-Americans who competed this year in federal, state, and local races.  Some of those have been eliminated during the primaries which were held in August of this year.  However, a very good number of them won the primaries and are proceeding to the general elections to be held on November 6.

The Pew Forum published its report on American religions on January 3, 2018, and revealed that in 2017 there were 3.45 million Muslims in the United States constituting 1.1 percent of the US population.  The national origins of these Muslims include 35 percent South Asian; 26 percent Arab; 25 percent African American; and 15 percent as other.

By 2040, it is estimated that Muslims will replace Jews in the United States as the second largest religion after Christians. 

The US Muslim population was expected to reach 8.1 million by 2015, or 2.1 percent of the nation’s total population–more than doubling in numbers between 2017 and 2050.

By contrast, there are 56 candidates running for the US Congress who identify themselves as Jewish.  Among them are 41 Democrats – five running for the US Senate–three incumbents and two challengers.  Of the 36 American Jews running for the US House of Representatives–18 are incumbents and 18 are challengers while three incumbent Jewish House Democrats are retiring.  15 American Jews are running for the House on Republican tickets – two incumbents and 13 challengers.  Additionally, two House candidates (Democrats) have Jewish fathers which they say shaped their outlook but they do not identify as Jewish. While at least three House candidates (Democrats) have a Jewish spouse and are raising their children as Jewish.

In short, among the 900 candidates for Congress –Jews make up less than 2 percent of the population yet comprise 6 percent of the congressional candidates.

By comparison, and based on our best estimates, there are 10 Arab and Muslim-American candidates still in the running for the US House of Representatives and none running for the US Senate. 

Four of these are running for re-election:

Ralph Abraham – Alabama, District 5

Garret Graves – Alabama, District 6

Justin Amash – Michigan, District 3

Darin LaHood – Illinois, District 18

While the six other candidates are challenges and they are:

Ammar Campa-Najjar – California, District 5

Donna Shalala – Florida, District 27

Rashida Tlaib – Michigan, District 13

Ilhan Omar – Minnesota, District 5

Dan David – Pennsylvania, District 4

Mahmoud Mahmoud – New Jersey, District 3

Three Arab-American Members of the US House of Representatives are not running for re-election (Ruben Kihuen – NV, District 4; Richard Hanna – New York, District 22; and Darrel Issa – California, District 49).

Having reviewed the landscape of the Arab, Muslim, and Jewish candidates running for the US Congress in November, here are a few general observations about the candidates and why they are running for this national office:

• Admittedly, the number of Arab and Muslim-Americans running for Congress is small compared to American Jews running for both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, nonetheless, it is a record.
• Should Rashida Tlaib of Michigan win the House seat she is seeking, she would become the first Palestinian-American woman to win a House seat as well as the first female Muslim-American. Her odds of winning are almost assured as she is running unopposed.
• Should Ammar Campa-Najjar of California win the House seat he is seeking, he would become the first Palestinian-Hispanic-American to become a member of the House of Representatives. Ammar, a Democrat, is running in a heavily Republican district but his opponent has been indicted for misuse of campaign funds.
• Some of the Arab and Muslim candidates running for Congress are doing so despite their parties’ lack of enthusiasm toward their candidacies. Rashida Tlaib revealed that “The Democratic establishment told me to wait my turn.”  Yet she decided to go ahead and to nominate herself because she added that “there’s currently no moral compass in Congress.  I want to show that people can win over money and the establishment.”
• Trump’s anti-Muslim tirade and his travel ban on people from mostly Muslim countries energized young Arab and Muslim Americans. Fayrouz Saad who lost in the primaries stated that she ran because “It’s the first time in my life the American Dream is being threatened.”
• Progressives in the Democratic Party led by none other than a Jewish Senator, Bernie Sanders, have energized the young, the minorities, and the disenfranchised to fight with their votes and never give up. Bernie Sanders will go down in history as the modern-day champion of progressives in the United States.
• American Jewish organizations, like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and J Street, among others, have thrown support behind many Arab and Muslim candidates. With that support, they won organizational expertise, better funding, and were shielded from being called anti-Semitics or anti-Israeli.  Ironically, Israel itself has labeled JVP as anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.
• The growth of the Arab-American population especially the Muslim-American population has given a boost to those who aspire to run for public office. After all, there is strength in numbers.
• Finally, it is my expectation that these new Arab and Muslim candidates–soon to be members of Congress, unlike many of those who were of Lebanese and Syrian descent, will be more vocal on issues of concern to their communities such as Palestine, immigration, and the Muslim ban.

As for American-Jewish candidates for Congress, there is no doubt that the sheer number of those candidates is very impressive.  However, that is of no surprise to anyone, as American Jews have ingratiated themselves in the American political system decades ago and with stunning success.

It is my hope that Arabs, Muslims, and Jews work together in the new Congress like no other time before.  More and more American Jews are no longer single-issue candidates–Israel, Israel, and Israel.  Israel’s right-wing government has divided the American Jewish population and an increasingly large number of them want nothing to do with an oppressive and inhumane Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people and their land.

Related Story: Meet the Arab American Candidates Running for Office in 2018

Prof. Bishara Bahbah was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem based “Al-Fajr” newspaper between 1983-84. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Peace Talks on Arms Control and Regional Security.  He taught at Harvard and was the associate director of its Kennedy School’s Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America.