Texas town elects first Muslim councilman, defeating Tea Party candidate

[sl8]

From https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Texas-town-elects-first-Muslim-councilman-12907891.php

Texas town elects first Muslim councilman, defeating Tea Party candidate

By Fernando Ramirez
Updated 10:29 pm, Friday, May 11, 2018

A slim margin of 37 votes decided the election of Euless' first Muslim councilmember this past Saturday.

Thousands of voters in the small town outside Dallas turned out to support Salman Bhojani, a Pakistani immigrant attacked on the campaign trail due to his faith.

"I am proud to have participated in a race that saw the highest voter turnout in a Euless city election in twenty-five years," wrote Bhojani on his campaign site. "I am also proud to have run a positive, issues-focused campaign that rose above the negativity others sought to inject into the race."

A little over 4,000 votes were cast in the election that pitted Bhojani, 38, against Molly Maddux, a 63-year-old retired teacher and Tea Party candidate.

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More at link.

[RandySF]

1. I visited Houston proper in 2005.

I was surprised by how diverse it was.

[TexasProgresive]

3. Euless is north a bit of Ft. Worth and Dallas

It is a real surprise that one of these cities in the DFW area would elect a Muslim. Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston OK but not in the towns surrounding them which are traditional White flight towns.

[TexasTowelie]

5. Yes, but the suburbs around DFW airport have a large concentration of Muslims.

When I lived in Irving around 2010 the neighborhood was about 1/3 Muslim. While some were employed with Verizon, they were also heavily represented in the hospitality and service sector. I can almost guarantee that if you call for a cab in the cities near the airport that you will get a Muslim driver. They are also the owners/managers of most of the lower and mid-range hotels in the area.

I'm not surprised that Euless would elect a Muslim. They are even more diverse than Irving with a large population of Pacific Islanders. I believe that there are also more young renters there which could skew the voting demographics since they are less likely to vote.

[Gothmog]

2. Texas will turn blue one day and when that happens the GOP will have no chance to elect POTUS

There is progress being made on the ground

We have a candidate who just started claiming that she is Muslim running in the runoff in my congressional district against an Asian who was attacked by Our Revolution. This is so strange.

[dhill926]

4. I know this area well...

gotta say, I am happily surprised at this. Just perhaps, the times, they are a changin’