The Council on American-Islamic Relations teased a “major” expansion to its lobbying and political operations in the wake of Oct. 7 to give Muslims “a voice in the halls of Congress and on the campaign trails.” Nearly two years later, the pro-Hamas group’s allies and officials say their efforts helped elect New York City mayor-to-be Zohran Mamdani, with plans to “make even more history” in next year’s midterm elections.
At CAIR events this summer, anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour bragged that she got CAIR’s political arm, CAIR Action, and a CAIR-endorsed super PAC, Unity & Justice Fund, to back Mamdani’s campaign. “You need to move that PAC [to support Mamdani],” Sarsour said at a CAIR event in August. Unity & Justice Fund raised $173,000 through September and spent most of that money—$143,500—backing Mamdani.
“The story is not just that it’s random that Zohran ascended to this place,” Sarsour said at another CAIR event in September. “It’s Muslim money.”
It’s part of an aggressive foray into campaign politics for CAIR, a purportedly apolitical charity known for launching legal fights against anti-Muslim discrimination. While CAIR itself cannot endorse political candidates or spend on elections, its political arm, CAIR Action, can. Then there’s the Unity & Justice Fund. The super PAC is not legally associated with CAIR, but its treasurer, Basim Elkarra, doubles as the head of CAIR Action. The two groups also share office space in Washington, D.C., and CAIR Action gave the PAC $10,000 in May, campaign finance disclosures show.
Together, the entities create what Sarsour called a “new level of sophistication” in CAIR’s political efforts. It was long in the making.
Nihad Awad, the CAIR executive director who said he was “happy to see” Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, first touted “a major breakthrough in the way we do business and the way we speak to our politicians nationwide” shortly after the attack during a Dec. 10, 2023, interview. CAIR Action registered in D.C. 12 days later, according to local business filings. By January 2024, Awad was sharing “the good news: that we are expanding our C4, lobbying, and PACs … so that we give you a voice not only in the halls of Congress, but also on the campaign trails.”
The “C4” was a reference to CAIR Action, which is registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Awad’s talk of “PACs” was less clear—CAIR Action does have its own PAC, which it registered in July 2025, but it’s raised no money since then. That suggests CAIR Action and its leader, Elkarra, are instead leaning on Unity & Justice Fund, an entity that is not obviously affiliated with CAIR and does not bear its controversial branding, to conduct political operations.
Those operations have been successful as of late, according to Elkarra. During the August event, he and Sarsour attributed the elections of Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D., Md.) and Rep. Derek Tran (D., Calif.) to the mobilization efforts of CAIR Action and the Muslim community. Elkarra pledged to replicate that success on a larger scale next year.
“You’ll see in the midterm elections,” Elkarra said. “We’ll make even more history.” He touted an initiative that “launched quietly” earlier this year to raise $100 from 100 members of mosques and Islamic groups across the country.
“Now we have a war chest. Now we can build out the team at a national level and strategic locations, and we’ll deliver victories,” said Elkarra, who aims to raise $24 million through the program over the next year.
Elkarra said volunteers with the Muslim Community Action Network, an “alliance of Islamic centers and Muslim organizations” that Sarsour helped launch, did canvassing work for Tran, while the “super PAC”—a reference to Unity & Justice Fund—made “independent expenditures” supporting his candidacy. CAIR Action said after Tran’s victory that Unity & Justice Fund sent 50,000 text messages in support of the Democrat. The PAC paid $35,000 for “text messages” last year, according to campaign finance disclosures. It paid $2,700 earmarked specifically for Tran, records show.
Beyond electing anti-Israel Democrats, the CAIR network aims to use the symbiotic political power to influence how lawmakers vote on issues related to Israel. Sarsour, who is not a CAIR employee but works closely with the group, highlighted Alsobrooks as an instructive success story.
According to Sarsour, Alsobrooks voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I., Vt.) bill to withhold weapons from Israel earlier this year—a measure supported by CAIR and other anti-Israel groups—”because she knew who helped her.”
“It’s not just the winning part, it’s what’s the work that you do after with these United States senators to make sure that they’re doing the right thing in the voting,” said Sarsour.
Tran has also fallen into line with CAIR’s agenda. CAIR’s Los Angeles chapter urged supporters to “thank” Tran for a July 24 speech on the House floor in which he condemned what he claimed were Israeli strikes on Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid. Tran hosted CAIR Los Angeles director Hussam Ayloush in Washington, D.C., in April as part of CAIR’s annual lobbying trip, according to social media posts. Ayloush said in a sermon just after Oct. 7, that “Israel should be attacked” and that it is a “legitimate right” to “pick up arms and defend your people and your land.”
Candidates supported by CAIR and its allies can expect more pressure to side with the group should they win their races. At the August event, Sarsour recalled that she attended a fundraiser for a Muslim congressional candidate in Houston who raised $180,000 from a few dozen donors. She was impressed, but also concerned that the donors did not make policy demands of the candidate, should he be elected.
“What did you ask for your $180,000? What commitments did this man make to you?” she said.
Sarsour’s remarks have sent CAIR scrambling to differentiate between the national charity and the Unity & Justice Fund, suggesting it does not want CAIR’s controversial brand name associated with the PAC, especially in races outside of liberal enclaves like New York City. At the end of the CAIR event in September, Elkarra issued a “legal disclaimer to protect CAIR,” stating the Unity & Justice Fund was merely endorsed by CAIR, according to reports.
CAIR deleted a YouTube video of the event last week after a clip of Sarsour’s remarks went viral on social media. CAIR did not respond to questions about the deleted video, but said in a statement that because of its status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, “CAIR cannot and does not support or oppose candidates for office in any way, nor can we or do we fund any political action committees.”
CAIR Action and Unity & Justice Fund did not respond to requests for comment.
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