Former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He endorsed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) during his term in 2005.

Ehrlich served as Maryland’s governor from 2003 to 2007. He lost twice to a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who has his own weak record on Islamism.

The CAIR website still proudly showcases Ehrlich’s endorsement, even though the author pointed out the endorsement in an article written in March 2012.

“I’m glad that you have established such a strong voice in the community and that you are working to maintain a strong sense of cultural and economic identity,” he is quoted as saying in December 2005.

CAIR was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator by the U.S. Justice Department in 2007 during the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood front group found guilty of financing Hamas.

The U.S. government specifically stated that CAIR is an “entity” of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. This Committee was established by the Brotherhood to covertly support the Hamas and overall Islamist agenda.

The FBI wiretapped a secret Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 that included two of CAIR’s founders and its current executive director. The meeting organizers, including CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad, were recorded discussing how to use deception to influence American opinion and policy.

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists…the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists,” said federal prosecutors in a court filing in another case.

Ehrlich’s endorsement of CAIR came before the organization’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator, but its radical record was well-established by December 2005.

“All Governor Ehrlich had to do was look up CAIR on Google. He could have read nearly a dozen congressional testimonies I delivered in the 1990s through 2005 that specifically cited CAIR as a front group with hundreds of self-authenticating footnotes,” notes Investigative Project on Terrorism executive director Steve Emerson when the endorsement was first noticed.

Most recently, CAIR endorsed a letter condemning the Islamic State terrorist group but endorsed sharia law and the resurrection of an Islamic caliphate.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also recently banned CAIR as a terrorist group. It defended the decision by accusing CAIR of inciting and financing terrorism. A senior UAE official stated that CAIR is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ehrlich has visited New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican presidential primary, twice since September and is due to return again. He began raising his national profile last year by touring in support of his book, America: Hope for Change, which lays out his policy vision for 2016.

Ehrlich is considered a long-shot for the Republican presidential nomination and his name has yet to be included in polls. However, even a loss will increase his national influence and could result in a high-level appointment.

Political candidates cannot credibly boast of their national security credentials after endorsing a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and terrorism-financing co-conspirator. Not only did Ehrlich do that, but his quote has remained on CAIR’s website more than two years since he was criticized for it.

Voters need to hold candidates’ feet to the fire and require that they understand Islamism and how its proponents operate in America.