it is interesting to look back just to May 2009 when Iranian-Palestinian-American Amir Omar was elected to the City Council in Richardson, Texas, after fighting religious prejudice and political mudslinging during the campaign.
Omar won a seat by the narrow margin of 220 votes. He did so by garnering seemingly opposed voters, including from the city’s business elite and from its staunchest critics.
His narrow win, with support from a local political group whose other selections won big, came despite anti-Muslim rumors and prejudice.
Omar, 37, grew up in Harlingen, Texas, to an upper-middle-class Iranian Shiite mother and a Sunni Palestinian father who grew up with modest means. The couple met in Arizona in college.
During his bid for the City Council seat, Omar said he met with leaders at council meetings—some of whom reacted positively while others confessed his Muslim religion gave them pause.
Bob Nusser, a former council member, said he told Omar he didn’t agree with his Muslim faith but would vote for him anyway.
Charles Eisemann, a businessman and philanthropist, told The Dallas Morning News, “I’ve had people upset with me because I support someone who’s a Muslim. I think it’s good that someone has a religious foundation, no matter what that is.”
In addition to Nusser and Eisemann, Omar earned the endorsement of the Richardson Coalition, a political committee formed after longtime Mayor Gary Slagel was ousted from the post in 2007.
Unlike Omar, the other candidates endorsed were well-established local figures, including longtime incumbents such as Slagel. But they liked how Omar approached the issues.
Martha Ritter, one of the coalition leaders, said, “I found out he’s a strong conservative, and he’s an inquisitive guy.”
But Omar also won the support of people highly critical of the coalition and most of the candidates it endorsed.
“He brings to the city some very valuable, fresh ideas,” said Nathan Morgan, a resident who regularly chides the coalition. “He’s essentially an outsider.”
Omar’s election campaign wasn’t a smooth ride to victory, however. Allegations flew against him, including one that claimed he voted in a precinct he no longer lived in during the last Republican primary; that allegation proved true. Another rumor, however, wrongly claimed he had lied about his degree from Texas A&M University
“Everything they could find out, it started with this ethnic and religious bias,” Morgan told The Dallas Morning News.
Omar spent more than $10,000 on his campaign, thousands more than his opponent, incumbent Dennis Stewart. This wasn’t Omar’s first campaign however. In 2006, Omar decided to run for Congress partially to show he could win substantial votes against a popular Democrat, Eddie Bernice Johnson, in a heavily Democratic area. But he lost in the GOP primary before facing Congresswoman Johnson.