How many Muslim state legislators were serving in each U.S. state in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025 according to CAIR directories?
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Executive summary
A direct, state-by-state tally of Muslim state legislators in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025 cannot be produced from the CAIR materials supplied because CAIR’s publicly available press releases and directories in the provided sources summarize totals and highlight milestones rather than publishing a consistent, year-by-year table of per-state counts [1] [2] [3]. CAIR’s recent directory materials do, however, provide snapshots and aggregate counts — most notably a 2023 directory that lists 46 state-level Muslim elected officials (33 state representatives and 13 state senators) and broader tallies of 189 elected Muslim officials across local and state offices in 30 states [2] [1].
1. Data availability and limitations: what the sources actually contain
CAIR’s public communications in the supplied collection include a 2023 directory and related 2025 press material that report aggregate numbers and milestones but do not supply a simple matrix of “number in each state” for the specific years requested, so a direct per-state count for 2010, 2015, 2020 or 2025 cannot be verified from these documents alone [2] [1] [3]. The October 2022 directory PDF notes state-level firsts and highlights — for example that Illinois, Maine, Ohio, and Texas elected their first Muslim state legislators and that Minnesota and New York each had three Muslim state legislators at the time — which are useful micro-data points but do not constitute a complete nationwide per-state roster for the requested years [3]. CAIR press releases accompanying later directories repeat totals and celebrate growing representation, but do not publish the historical, year-by-year per-state breakdown required by the query [1] [2].
2. What CAIR’s directories and press releases do report (useful snapshots)
CAIR and partner Jetpac’s 2023 directory is explicit about state-level totals in aggregate: it reports 33 American Muslim State Representatives and 13 American State Senators — a combined total of 46 state-level Muslim elected officials — and separately documents 189 elected Muslim officials holding local and state office across 30 states in their broader directory framing [2] [1]. The October 2022 directory PDF documents specific milestones such as first Muslim state legislators in Illinois, Maine, Ohio, and Texas, and identifies Minnesota and New York as having the highest number of state legislators at that snapshot with three each, as well as noting the first Muslim members of the New Jersey legislature by name [3]. These are concrete, citable CAIR claims about specific years and jurisdictions, but they fall short of forming a complete year-by-year national state map.
3. The gap: why a per-state, multi-year table is not deliverable from these sources
None of the supplied CAIR links present a consolidated table listing, for each U.S. state, the number of Muslim state legislators in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025; instead the materials provide milestones, aggregate counts, and election highlights — including CAIR’s post-2025-election statements about numerous victories but without a finished, per-state legislative roster accessible in the supplied texts [4] [1] [2]. That means any attempt to produce the requested per-state numbers for 2010–2025 using only these sources would require inference or external records that are not present in the reporting provided; this analysis therefore refrains from asserting per-state figures where CAIR’s directory files and press statements do not supply them [3] [2].
4. Best next steps and how to obtain the exact counts CAIR likely holds
To obtain the exact per-state counts CAIR likely compiled, the appropriate next steps are to request CAIR’s underlying directory data or full PDF roster (the abridged 2023 PDF is public but may omit full lists), consult the full 2023/2024 directories and any archived CAIR directories for earlier years, or cross-reference CAIR’s lists with state legislative biographies and election records for 2010, 2015, and 2020; CAIR’s government affairs and directory pages are explicitly where they publish and update these rosters [5] [6]. The supplied CAIR materials provide verifiable aggregate snapshots (46 state-level officials in the 2023 snapshot; 189 total elected officials across 30 states in the 2023 directory) and specific state milestones, but do not contain the per-state, year-by-year breakdown requested here [2] [1] [3].