TEXAS – The Dallas Morning News reported Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his staff were slammed for refusing to meet Monday with American Muslim groups, including one from his home state, during National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill.

Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said her group tried for weeks to schedule a meeting with Cruz’s staff in Washington, with no luck. Hundreds of members of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition of American Muslim advocacy groups, went to Washington to meet with lawmakers on the advocacy day.

“This is indicative of what a Cruz presidency would look like,” Salem said later at a press conference Monday. “He has made clear in the media what he thinks about Muslims, how he plans to treat them, and today in his day job, he exhibited no less.”

Among the groups in the coalition were American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed).

Salem said the Cruz campaign initially offered to set up a meeting with a Middle East foreign policy adviser, according to the Dallas Morning News, which the group declined because, as American Muslims, they wanted to discuss issues affecting Americans.

Efforts to set up a meeting with another staff member failed, Salem said.

The executive director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, told the Dallas publication the denial of meetings could be a political move and that “the feeling I’m getting is maybe this is the election season.”

Cruz has angered American Muslim groups before with a statement, following the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, calling for patrols in Muslim neighborhoods. 

Cruz trails Trump in the race for the Republican nomination by about 200 delegates, with New York set to vote in its primary Tuesday.