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MINNEAPOLIS: Democrat Keith Ellison was elected as the nation's first Muslim member of Congress on Tuesday, easily winning a Minneapolis-area district Republicans had not carried since 1962.
Ellison, who is black, is also Minnesota's first nonwhite representative in Washington. He said those things were only of secondary importance.
"I think the most important thing about this race is we tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone. We all need peace, and this Iraq policy is dangerous to our country," said Ellison, who has called for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Ellison said his campaign united labor, minority communities, peace activists. "We were able to bring in Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists," he said. "We brought in everybody."
Ellison focused on issues that resonate in the urban, liberal-leaning 5th District in Minneapolis. By favoring gay rights and legal abortion, Ellison cut a path away from many Muslims.
Hayat Hassan, 30, a single mother and a Muslim, said she voted for Ellison because of his positions on health care and education.
"I didn't even know he was a Muslim until one of his campaign workers told me," she said.
The seat was thrown open when longtime Rep. Martin Sabo said he would retire after 28 years. The Minneapolis-centered district is the most Democratic-leaning in the state; in 2004 seven of 10 voters went for John Kerry for president. That meant the real battle was the September primary, and Ellison, the endorsed Democrat, beat several strong candidates in that race, including Sabo's former chief of staff Mike Erlandson.
On Tuesday he beat Republican Alan Fine and the Independence Party's Tammy Lee.
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, compared an Ellison victory to Edward Brooke's election in 1966 as the first black senator since the 1870s.
He said Muslims followed the campaign closely, and that they are more excited about seeing a Muslim in Congress than they are concerned about Ellison's strong liberal views.
"We are monotheistic, but we are not monolithic. There are things within our own community that we disagree about," he said. Ellison's views "might be a concern but I think the overall factor of having a Muslim voice in Congress overrides those types of concerns."
Ellison's campaign had to deal with reports of overdue parking tickets, late campaign finance reports and unpaid taxes. He also faced questions about anti-Semitism because of past ties with the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group led by the confrontational Louis Farrakhan.
Ellison, a criminal defense attorney who converted to Islam as a college student, denounced Farrakhan, and he won the endorsement of a Minneapolis Jewish newspaper.
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