Record number of Muslims elected to Congress as CAIR shutters Florida operations under terror designation 

A record number of at least seven Muslims were elected to Congress in Tuesday’s midterms, including the first Muslim ever elected to the Senate.

The political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida state officials have designated a terrorist organization, endorsed the incoming senator and backed several other winning candidates.

CAIR halted operations in the Sunshine State on Thursday, with its Florida office phone number relaying the following message to callers: “We have suspended our operations in Florida because of Governor DeSantis and other state officials’ baseless and unconstitutional enforcement of the state’s unprecedented new domestic terrorist organization laws against us.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, celebrated the news after his attorney general, James Uthmeier, announced it.

DeSantis wrote in a December 2025 executive order that “CAIR was founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and was created, in the words of persons affiliated with CAIR, as ‘an official U.S. cover representing the Islamic community’ to conceal ties to Islamic extremist groups.” A federal judge blocked that order in March, but DeSantis signed a law creating a formal designation process, and CAIR’s designation took effect Thursday.

The organization is expected to challenge a ruling Wednesday that declined its request to reverse the designation. The federal government has not designated CAIR a terrorist organization, and the group denies any ties to terrorism and has described the state designations as politically motivated.

Winning candidates celebrate

Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the Senate. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, André Carson of Indiana and Lateefah Simon of California won reelection, and newcomers Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York and Adam Hamawy of New Jersey won their races. Hamawy made history as the first Muslim elected to Congress from his state.

“My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed,” El-Sayed said in his victory speech. “Up until right about now, you might have noticed I always say ‘inshallah,’ or ‘God willing,’ whenever the outcome of this race was mentioned. … But today, tonight, we can turn that inshallah into alhamdulillah!”

Inshallah translates to “if God wills it,” and alhamdulillah means “thank God.”

“Congratulations, Abdul El-Sayed. You turned that inshallah into alhamdulillah,” Omar posted on Wednesday. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude knowing that we will now have 8 Muslims serving in Congress. They told us we couldn’t speak up, couldn’t challenge the status quo, and couldn’t make it this far. But we did.”

Omar is facing a federal investigation over allegations she committed immigration fraud by marrying her brother.

Results were still pending Thursday in California Rep. Aisha Wahab’s race for a full term after she won a special election in August.

In Texas, candidates CAIR Action preferred or endorsed swept the state’s top races, including Sen.-elect James Talarico and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa.

CAIR Action states its goal of “building Muslim political power” on its website. Its priorities include “ending national security overreach,” “countering racial profiling in law enforcement,” “reforming immigration policies” and “supporting a just and transformative foreign policy.” Under these priorities, the group targets policies regarding the FBI watchlist, no-fly lists and alleged “loopholes” that it says permit national security agencies to operate with racial and religious biases.

(Image credit: Abdul El-Sayed by Conlan Houston, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)