Anti-Shariah activist Kevin Kookogey joins Ted Cruz camp

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has named anti-Shariah activist Kevin Kookogey as his state chairman for Tennessee.

Kookogey, a former chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, was unsuccessful in his bid to coalesce tea party support for a primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander last year.

Kookogey in 2013 decided against mounting that long-planned campaign after former state Rep. Joe Carr decided to get in the race. Carr ended up losing to Alexander by fewer than 10 percentage points.

As head of the Williamson County GOP, Kookegey presided over the 2012 passage of a resolution criticizing Republican Gov. Bill Haslam over the role of a Muslim staffer and a council that has advised two state departments on Islamic affairs.

The Haslam administration denied it was promoting any religion.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement Tuesday afternoon asking Cruz to remove Kookogey from his role with the campaign. CAIR, which describes itself as the country's largest Muslim rights advocacy organization, asked Cruz to dismiss Kookogey because of his "longstanding support for anti-Muslim and Islamaphobic causes."

"If Senator Cruz chooses to keep Mr. Kookogey on his campaign staff, it would serve as an endorsement of anti-Muslim hate," CAIR Government Affairs Manager Robert McCaw said in a statement.

Tennessean staff writer Dave Boucher contributed to this report.