New report shows racist and anti-Muslim candidates lose elections

The use of anti-Muslim sectarianism in political campaigns is a tactic that was faced by Muslims and Muslim candidates. more than and more than in recent years. Last week, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) Launched a series of announcements of Islamist and racist attacks on his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar.

But a new report shows that candidates who have followed this tactic over the past two years have been critically affected and ultimately lost their elections.

In his report "Running on Hate" published Monday, Muslim Lawyers, a national rights organization based in Washington, DC, documented candidates who ran – or run for office – in the 2017 and 2018 elections and produced Islamophobic campaigns as part of their political strategy.

Political rumors and malicious campaigns are not new in the history of US elections. But in recent years, especially after the election of Donald Trump as president, racist and xenophobic campaigns have proliferated, along with the alarming number of white supremacists running for election and the resurgence of hate-motivated crimes. in the country.

The Muslim lawyers identified in his report for the period 2017-2018 were congressional candidates, the other 40 candidates for local posts, including 15 candidates to the county office, 15 to the governorship and 10 to the state parliament. Of the 73 races where party membership of the candidate could be positively identified, all but two were Republicans, confirming the Hostility of the GOP towards Muslims.

While 34 of these campaigns are still active, the results for the other 46 go against the candidates: 27 anti-Muslim candidates lost their races, eight dropped out and one was recalled. Only two have finally won, both in 2017.

At the same time, the report predicts that many of the still-active candidates will lose, with "only one or two newly elected anti-Muslim candidates" – which means that most of the winners would likely be candidates in office.

The report based its findings on various focus groups and the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan newsletter analyzing elections and campaigns.

"There has always been a small group of resilient but anti-Muslim politicians for years. But it has absolutely exploded in the 2017 and 2018 elections, "Huffpost's Scott Simpson, the author of the report and director of advocacy with Muslim Advocates, told Huffpost.

"It is vitally important that candidates, politicians and elected officials understand that this is a path to loss. This is not a way to win an election. It is also irresponsible and divisive. But it's not even effective, "said Simpson.

The problem of using an anti-Muslim language is widespread throughout the country. According to the report, the state with the largest number of anti-Muslim candidates was Texas, followed by Virginia and Florida with six participants each.

These candidates have propagated conspiracy theories "false, sectarian and dangerous" often promoted by various hate groups. Some of these conspiracy theories asserted that Muslim Americans were intrinsically violent and sought to gain control of the US government. Other candidates resorted to alarmist tactics during the election campaign, repeating the false myths that Muslims want to enforce the law and declaring that Islam was a sect and not a religion like any other .

Samara Klar is an associate professor at the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, where she studies how an individual's personal identity and social environment influence their political views.

Based on his research, Klar claims that the recent use of xenophobia and racism as a political strategy is considered "socially undesirable" and that it is unlikely that most Americans will publish and publicly support such "damaging and counterproductive" messages.

So, why do candidates rely on anti-Muslim and xenophobic messages to get votes? Because the presidential candidate Trump relied on such strategies and won in 2016

"It might be confusing for a candidate who sees Donald Trump use these explicitly xenophobic things, and he wins, so maybe it will work for me too," said Klar.

Simpson predicted that this tactic will not only fail candidates in this election cycle, but will also set a precedent for future elections.

"Many of these candidates make a really mistaken assumption because they saw Trump being elected. And this really erroneous assumption is that anti-Muslim bigotry is popular. That's not it, "Simpson said.

"We know that candidates are always looking to see what works and we know that the 2018 election is a dress rehearsal for 2020".