The Muslim politician and voter: A growth the US right wing cannot ignore, and will have to live with

America has now elected its first Muslim senator in Abdul El-Sayed, not long after New York City got its first Muslim mayor in Zohran Mamdani. Former President Barack Obama is a Christian, though Donald Trump made it a point to call him Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama, to bring forth his partial Muslim ancestry. The midterm elections of 2026 are making one thing very clear: The Muslim politician and voter are both growing, and here to stay. American right-wing commentators and politicians cannot dismiss them by belittling them. Like the Conservatives in Britain - who embraced non-whites and Muslims to the Tory party - possibly the way forward for the American right wing, and particularly the Republican Party, could be to accept and welcome more Muslim politicians into their fold, and make religion not decide the political agenda.

More Muslim politicians win in 2026 midterms

Apart from the historic victory of El-Sayed, the 2026 midterms saw the election of several Muslim candidates at all levels. They won a total of eight seats in the US Congress - one in the Senate and seven in the House of Representatives. When federal, state and local results are combined, there are at least 97 confirmed wins across 21 states as per the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a fresh record above the then-high of 82 in 2022. Another 15 were leading in races yet to be called, as per CAIR's tally. In state legislatures, 38 Muslim candidates have been elected. Dozens of Muslim Americans won at county and municipal level, as well as in education and judicial positions.
According to the CAIR 2026 directory, released in August before the midterms, there are at least 255 Muslim elected officials at all levels across 26 states.

Also read: ‘Habibi PAC’: First Muslim US Senator-elect El-Sayed launches new political action committee

Muslim representation in Congress

It is a very slow trickle but it is growing. Post-midterms, there will be seven Muslims in the House of Representatives: incumbents André Carson, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Lateefah Simon and Aisha Wahab, as well as newcomers Adam Hamawy and Darializa Avila Chevalier. The Muslim Americans elected to Congress, with the year they took office, are Keith Ellison (2007), André Carson (2008), Ilhan Omar (2019), Rashida Tlaib (2019), Lateefah Simon (2025) and Aisha Wahab (2026). Adam Hamawy, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Abdul El-Sayed take office in January 2027.

Muslim registered voters on the rise

The number of registered Muslim voters has grown from around 1.2 million as per CAIR's 2022 estimate to more than 3 million, as per its 2026 estimate. The voter registration rate among eligible Muslims went up from 60 per cent in 2016 to 85 per cent in 2025, as per the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU). In a CAIR survey, 80 per cent of Muslim voters said they primarily voted for Democrats in these midterms, against 6 per cent for Republicans.

A new America that the right wing has to live with

This rise is significant, given the vitriol unleashed in the past two decades by right-wing commentators and politicians against Muslims. The most unfathomable result was the 2025 mayoral election of New York, the city where al-Qaeda terrorists brought down the Twin Towers on 9/11 a quarter of a century ago. Trump's constant insinuation that Obama was a Muslim, by calling out his middle name Hussein, was one aspect of this politicisation of religion. This year, he used the same tactic against El-Sayed, calling him by his middle name, Mohamed. His administration fought universities that allowed pro-Palestinian protests and went after the student leaders behind them. It constantly derided the Islamic Republic of Iran, with many comments bordering on racism.

Also read: 'I am more Indian than Arab': Abdul El-Sayed on his Indian-origin wife

But through all this, the American Muslim seems to be slowly coming of age as a political entity the right wing cannot ignore or deride away. This is only possible because voters in the world's oldest constitutional democracy did not vote based on the religious identity of the candidate, but on what they perceived as merit and leadership qualities.