Muslim For Senate: Deedra Abboud To Run Against Republican In Arizona

A Muslim woman has launched a U.S. Senate bid in an effort to oust the Republican incumbent in Arizona, according to a new report. Deedra Abboud has officially announced her candidacy for the public office, a politics reporter for the Arizona Republic tweeted on Monday.

If she can secure the Democratic nomination, Abboud would face off against Sen. Jeff Flake, who has taken a very active stance against rhetoric that targets Muslims. If Abboud were to win, she would become the first U.S. Senator who was a practicing Muslim.

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Flake has made it a point to push back against anti-Muslim sentiment in Arizona. In 2015, he visited a mosque in the city of Scottsdale following a terror attacks in San Bernardino, California, which was ultimately claimed by the Islamic State group, NBC News reported.

"This was a difficult week in Washington — it wasn't so much the legislative calendar as it was the rhetoric that came forth mostly from the presidential campaign," Flake told mosque members at the time. "That is not in keeping with the values and ideals that have made this country the shining city on the hill that it is."

Abboud, a lawyer and community activist in Phoenix who wears a hijab, founded and heads up the Global Institute of Solution Oriented Leadership organization and was involved in opening the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in 2003, AZ Central reported.

She converted to Islam nearly 20 years ago. In January, Abboud brought attention to the scrutiny she has faced as a result of her religion.

"Muslim women who are wearing the headscarf in the United States are under a lot of scrutiny," Abboud told USA Today at the time. "They get a lot of negative looks and some are even attacked."

She added: "You can only judge me on what I do and what I say."

New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, was elected to office in November despite the fact that an opposing group used fliers to bring attention to her "Arab and Muslim-sounding name," according to U.S. News & World Report.

"The mailing intentionally invokes the specter of terrorism and associates Muslims with violence against civilians in a clear attempt to sway voters using Islamophobia," CAIR's Massachusetts chapter director John Robbins said in October while Hassan was still campaigning for the Senate. "This group is obviously exploiting both the candidate's Arab and Muslim-sounding name and the growing Islamophobic sentiment in our nation."