The Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) reports that there was an extraordinarily high turnout this past election with 90% of American Muslims voting — 74% voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton while 13% voted for president-elect Donald Trump (who got nearly twice the number of votes that Mitt Romney received in 2012).
“Traditionally, around 15% of the Muslim community still votes Republican says CAIR government affairs director, Robert McCaw. “We believe there were a number of shy Muslim voters in pre-election polling that were not comfortable admitting they were voting for Trump, but after Trump’s victory they were more forthcoming in their support.”
“According to the CAIR polling, American Muslims that support Trump said their primary issues of concern revolved around the economy and taxes,” continues Mr. McCaw. “It’s easy to see why a certain percentage of the Muslim community would want to benefit from President-elect Trump’s proposed tax plan and breaks for small businesses.”
Corey Saylor, CAIR’s national legislative director, says that the exit poll numbers indicate that the Republican Party lost massive potential by debasing Muslim voters with the same conservative values. “It shows that the Republican Party consistently alienated Muslims and needs to do a lot of [reforming] in many ways [for their] conservative constituents.”
