Emotions run high in Michigan signaling trouble for Harris

His son Albert, though, will vote for Donald Trump despite the former President’s anti-Muslim history, noting, “He’s done a lot that we don’t agree with, and we do find unethical, but…he didn’t start any new wars.”

In 2020, Hamzeh Abbas met then-candidate Joe Biden in Dearborn and pledged his support if Biden worked for peace in the Middle East. Abbas says Biden responded that he would try. Abbas voted for him. Now, he says Biden and Harris are “Spending 45 billion dollars to butcher our cousins in Lebanon and the Middle East, so I don’t support either Biden or Harris or Trump.”

In an interview in his son’s trendy, Dearborn restaurant, The Great Commoner, Abbas said that Trump was too pro-Israel for him. But Abbas’ son, Albert, said he felt abandoned by the Democratic party because of the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel.

Some Michigan Arab and Muslim Americans are literally screaming and crying in front of elected officials supporting Kamala Harris. These voters have been overcome with emotion from what they consider the genocide in Palestine and Israel’s expanded war in Lebanon. Yet, they also hate Donald Trump, because of his Muslim bans and pro-Israeli stands. All this is according to Arabic-language reporters and nearly a dozen political activists in Michigan.

Perhaps that explains why several Democratic elected officials in Wayne County Michigan refused to talk to AsAmNews even when we sat outside their offices for hours, texted them on their personal cell phones and had political supporters ask for us. We were met with a wall of silence from the Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn (who told voters to vote their conscience), Mayor Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck (who backs Trump) and the Wayne County Deputy Executive Assad Turfe (who so far has not endorsed any candidate).

Driving around Dearborn, Michigan, the largest Arab-majority city in America, AsAmNews did not see any political signs supporting any Presidential candidates. We saw only one sign for a state representative. Arab and Muslim Americans in 2020 helped Joe Biden win Michigan decisively, in 2024 they seem to be sitting this election out or are divided.

At Al’s grill for burgers and shawarma on West Warren Avenue in Dearborn, owner Ahmed Moussa told AsAmNews while preparing a chicken shawarma sandwich that he’s not concerned about even voting for President. He told AsAmNews he’s focused, “on local guys, officials, who can help me directly.” However, one of his customers noted with enthusiasm that he was voting for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

In September, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) released information from its August 25-27 presidential election survey of 1,155 American Muslim voters. It found that Muslim voters favored Stein “in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin, while Harris leads among Muslim voters in Georgia and Pennsylvania and Donald Trump leads in Nevada.”

Muslim and Arab Americans in Michigan are united in their grief and anger at what they term genocide in Gaza and war on Lebanon, but they are deeply divided in which presidential candidate, if any, can stop the killing. Because of the expected razor-thin closeness of the presidential race, the loss of the once solidly Democratic vote from Michigan’s Muslim and Arab Americans could play a major role in determining who wins the Presidential election.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently texted Democratic donors that she was on the “Blue Wall Bus Tour.” She and six other Democratic Governors are touring three states deemed critical to winning the Electoral College vote: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. She texted, “These three states are collectively known as the ‘Blue Wall’ — and polling experts and political pundits all agree that Vice President Kamala Harris most likely path to the presidency resides in winning here.”

On Saturday at Kamala Harris’ rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, protestors shouted out, “No more Gaza.” Harris responded in a somber tone, “… On the topic of Gaza, we must end that war, end that war and bring the hostages home.”

Vice President Harris and former President Trump have held roughly a dozen rallies in Michigan including Detroit. Neither candidate went to neighboring Dearborn with 110,000 Arab Americans. USA Today cites polls indicating a dead-even race between Harris and Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Dearborn and Detroit are the two largest cities in Wayne County. The Associated Press cited Wayne County as one of the critical counties needed to win Michigan.

Ramis Wadood, a 30-year-old civil rights attorney and Yale Law School graduate, has not decided how to vote. He told AsAmNews in an interview in a Detroit coffee shop that deciding on this presidential election has been “excruciating.” After the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians using US weapons, he feels, “betrayed by the Democratic party” that he has supported his entire voting life. Wadood says Muslim American political leaders and strategists in Michigan that he’s talked to plan to take a “calculated risk” and not vote for Harris or Trump and hope that Harris wins nonetheless. “We can’t let Trump win, but we can’t ignore Gaza and we can’t let the Democrats think they can do this and still get our votes.”

The Arab American Political Action Committee issued guidelines for the 2024 election: not to vote for Harris or Trump or the candidates for the US Senate seat from Michigan because all support Israel. Publisher of the influential The Arab American News, Osama Siblani believes there is support for Trump over Harris among Arab Americans nationally.

Siblani told AsAmNews, “There’s a lot of anger in the community and when you’re angry you cannot make intelligent decisions. People wanted to vote for Trump to punish Harris. People wanted to vote for Jill Stein because they don’t believe both (major party candidates). People wanted not to vote at all. They don’t care about going to the polls and voting.” The solution, according to the Arab American Political Action Committee is encourage voting for all elected offices except US President and the US Senate seat in Michigan.

To Ismael Ahmed this is wrong. “The difference is enormous (between Harris and Trump), so I do truly believe this is an armageddon election.” Ahmed is an Arab American activist who for 15 years was Co-Chair of the Michigan Democratic party. From his Farmington Hills home in Suburban Detroit, Ahmed cited two key issues of this election: the Climate Crisis, which Trump calls a hoax, and women’s reproductive rights. Ahmed says this election is “One in which we can’t sit it out. So…I’m supporting Kamala Harris.” Ahmed and other Arab American Democratic party leaders in Michigan are supporting Harris while publicly criticizing the US involvement in Gaza and Lebanon.

Ahmed says those who think not voting for Harris or not voting at all, “will teach the Democratic party a lesson is mistaken… History shows us that if you don’t support a candidate and they lose that the party writes you off. We’ve worked very hard to position ourselves. We have very little power in the national party still, but we are gaining weight, as you can see by this convention (Democratic National Convention), a growing number of delegates, our position on the central committee in Michigan.”

One would-be politician did talk to AsAmNews — Dr. Ahmed Ghanim. He lost the Democratic primary to represent the 11th district in Oakland County in Congress. He said, “You want really to defeat Trump? They know what to do. They have to stop the war. We know that it’s coming down to Michigan. And when it comes down to Michigan, it’s coming down to Oakland County and Wayne County, and you know who is in Oakland County and Wayne County, the main concentration of Arabs and Muslims in the United States.”

His vocal position may explain why Dr Ghanim was asked to leave a pro-Harris rally before it started on October 21st. The Harris campaign has not explained why he was asked to leave, but said it was a mistake and invited Dr. Ghanim to come to another Harris rally. Dr. Ghanim has not indicated if he will vote for Harris, but said his community can survive four more years of Trump in order to stand against genocide.

There are roughly 300,000 Arab Americans in Michigan. For Michigan’s 15 Electoral votes, according to the Brandeis Steinhardt Social Research Institute, in 2016, Trump won by 0.23%, or a mere 10,704 votes, and in 2020, Biden won by 2.8%, or 154,188 votes.

Pollster John Zogby conducted one of the few scientific polls of the Arab American vote solely in Michigan. His poll conducted in May had Biden as the Democratic candidate, but he feels Harris is seen similarly by Arab and Muslim American communities there. Zogby sampled 380 Arab American voters. With a margin of error of 5%, in 2020, 50% said they voted for Biden, 30% Trump 14% did not vote. How would this same group vote today? Zogby’s poll found 43% Trump, 15% Biden, 42% not sure.

Zogby asked overall how do you rate your personal attitude to Biden? Combining very and somewhat positive 14%, combining somewhat and very unfavorable 77%.

Zogby’s poll asked what are the three most important issues in determining your vote? Gaza 72%, cost of living 64% and jobs 46%.

Zogby concludes that Democrats have lost a significant portion of the Arab and Muslim American votes, which could cost Harris the Michigan vote. But pollster Zogby cautions that Trump is also intensely disliked by Michigan Arab and Muslim communities. Trump banned Muslims from six countries, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and has vowed to ban refugees from Gaza.

Zogby told AsAmNews, “It will be a much tighter margin than before and Donald Trump could win. It could be a big problem for Democrats. But there are bad numbers posting for Trump too, so it’s hard to call.”

One big reason Wayne County and Michigan are still hard to call can be found at The Muslim Center in Detroit, the largest city in Wayne County. Most of the worshippers are African American like 67-year-old Karl Monroe Bilal. When AsAmNews asked the retired Walmart maintenance worker about the election, he answered “Kamala Harris” before the question was finished. His reasons? The Republican candidate for president, to him, was terrible, and he believed the conflict in the Middle East was not Harris’ fault. “That was going on before she was born, before I was born, before my Momma was born.”

(This coverage was made possible by a grant through the URL Collective, a nonprofit supporting local, diverse media. AsAmNews and URL Collective have partnered to bring you election reporting from grassroots media.)