US elections 2020: Five and a half House races that could be critical
A number of House races could rival the drama of the main election day contest between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Although the Democrats are in little danger of losing their majority in the House, there are several close elections in critical districts that could indicate which way the presidential race will go.
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Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two women elected to Congress in 2018, easily defeated their primary opponents in their heavily Democratic districts. Still, they face fierce Republican opposition, with Trump launching repeated attacks against Omar and "the squad" - the name given to the legislator and three other first-term congresswomen of colour - in the run-up to Tuesday's vote.
In several parts of the US, candidates with Middle East heritage are looking to make a splash and maintain the liberal party's majority over the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Middle East Eye highlights a few different congressional races to watch.
Darrell Issa vs Ammar Campa-Najjar - California's 50th district
In an open seat in a historically conservative suburb outside San Diego, two Arab Americans are vying to win the district's congressional seat.
Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar is squaring up against Republican candidate Darrell Issa, once the richest member of Congress.
While both men are Arab Americans, their campaigns in recent weeks have largely focused on who is the most supportive of Israel.
Ammar Campa-Najjar has come under fierce criticism for touting a 2019 meeting with Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister who led the military operation that killed his grandparents in 1973, while promoting his pro-Israel credentials.
Both candidates have repeatedly voiced their opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) which seeks to pressure Israel to end its abuses against Palestinians through economic boycotts and other non-violent means.
Dozens of US states - including many where Democrats are in power - have laws that restrict the right to boycott when it comes to Israel.
"BDS is just wrong in every way," Campa-Najjar told the San Diego Jewish World last week.
According to OpenSecrets, Campa-Najjar in 2018 accepted around $43,000 from pro-Israel lobby groups and around $24,000 in 2020.
The website did not report any such campaign contributions toward Issa's election in 2018, but in 2020 he accepted just over $10,000.
Sima Ladjevardian vs David Crenshaw - Texas' 2nd district
Democrat Sima Ladjevardian, an immigrant originally from Iran, is running to represent Texas' 2nd congressional district.
Officially endorsed by former US President Barack Obama, Ladjevardian enjoys the support of Biden and has close ties with the Clinton family.
The candidate is running on a platform that calls for affordable healthcare, protecting women's reproductive rights, gun reform and dealing with climate change.
Ladjevardian faces a large challenge against rising Republican star Dan Crenshaw, who won the seat in 2018. Crenshaw is a former Navy SEAL who served in Iraq and lost an eye in Afghanistan. He has outraised Ladjevardian by a large amount, obtaining more than $16m according to OpenSecrets.
Last year, Crenshaw gained notoriety after he fuelled the false claim that Ilhan Omar denied that the 9/11 attackers were terrorists.
A week after he tweeted the false story, a Trump supporter was charged in New York with threatening to kill the legislator.
Asked about the deaths threats against Omar, the Republican quipped: "I get death threats. It's unfortunately part of the nature of this job."
Lulu Seikaly vs Van Taylor - Texas' 3rd district
Helane "Lulu" Seikaly is running for Texas' 3rd congressional district for the Democratic Party.
The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, she's facing Republican Congressman Van Taylor, a veteran marine who served in Iraq.
Seikaly's platform consists of liberal and progressive causes, such as universal healthcare, reproductive rights and affordable higher education in a district largely populated by wealthy, conservative voters.
While the district has seen a growth in minority populations, particularly Latinx communities, it still remains to be seen whether that will translate to voting patterns.
The district has consistently voted Republican for the past 50 years.
Sri Preston Kulkarni vs Troy Nehls - Texas' 22nd district
Sri Preston Kulkarni is running as the Democratic nominee in Texas's 22nd district against Troy Nehls, a Trump-supporting sheriff of Fort Bend County.
Having launched a grassroots outreach operation to Asian Americans, who make up 17 percent of the district's eligible voters, Kulkarni's campaign has been marred with controversy since it emerged he was supported by Hindu nationalist groups that are connected to anti-Muslim activity in India.
His purported links to the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), an international offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has angered locals despite his assertions that he "didn't know" anything about them.
The RSS is the parent organisation of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kulkarni, who unsuccessfully ran for the district in 2018, has also been criticised after it emerged he attended a rally last year headlined by India's right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In response to the allegations, Kulkarni has said he's an "ally to the Muslim community", and will continue to speak out against "Islamophobia and any form of prejudice anywhere in the world".
Muslims in the district are still split with many unconvinced by Kulkarni's overtures.
His campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment by Middle East Eye.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Nehls, has been accused by rights groups of racially profiling Latinos and other minorities while serving in the police force. He was previously fired from a position in the police for numerous episodes of misconduct.
While the district has been a Republican garrison, with the GOP winning by 40 points six years ago, two years ago the margin dropped to just 5 percent.
Laura Loomer vs Lois Frankel - Florida's 21st district
Anti-Muslim activist and internet provocateur Laura Loomer is expected to be crushed in the polls by incumbent Lois Frankel, a four-term Democratic congresswoman and former mayor of Palm Beach.
The district is heavily Democrat, with Frankel having won 86 percent of the primary vote in August.
Loomer, a far-right activist with no prior experience in politics, garnered attention in 2018, when she travelled the country "investigating" Muslim candidates for office.
During Ilhan Omar's first House run, Loomer showed up at a campaign event and harassed her and Tlaib, who at the time was running for a US House seat in Michigan.
Loomer, who is Jewish, claimed the two Muslim congresswomen were both "anti-American and anti-Jewish".
Following several complaints, Loomer has been banned by numerous social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as as well as other platforms including Medium, Paypal, GoFundMe and Uber.
Running unopposed: Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump supporter, won the Republican primary ticket in August, putting her on a path to Congress in the heavily Republican 14th district of Georgia. The Democrat that was supposed to face her has dropped out of the race.
Espousing anti-Muslim sentiments linked to the QAnon conspiracy, which vilifies the Islamic faith, several high-ranking Republicans have distanced themselves from Greene in recent months after she was exposed for expressing racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views on Facebook.
In one video message, Greene said that the 2018 midterms - which ushered in Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib - were part of "an Islamic invasion of our government" and that "anyone that is a Muslim that believes in Sharia law does not belong in our government."
Trump has expressed support for both Loomer and Greene, calling the latter a "future Republican star".
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