Muslim candidates running in record numbers face backlash

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Muslim Americans are running for elected office in numbers not seen since before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Jetpac, a Massachusetts nonprofit that helps train Muslim-American candidates, says some 50 are still in the running for national or statewide offices about midway through the primary election cycle.

Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who is running for Congress in Massachusetts, is among many hoping a surge of progressive activism in the Democratic Party carries them to their first political office.

But some promising campaigns have fizzled out, including that of Democrat Asif Mahmood, who raised $1 million in his failed bid for California insurance commissioner.

And many others continue to weather anti-Muslim sentiment emboldened in the Trump era.

Deedra Abboud, a U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, says she’s had right-wing militant groups stage armed protests at her campaign stops.