The Mideast War Threatens Harris in Michigan as Arab Voters Reject Her

One year after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the relentless and escalating violence in the Middle East is threatening the Democratic coalition in the United States. Arab American voters show signs of abandoning the Democratic ticket {snip}

Nowhere are those tensions more politically important than in Michigan, a crucial battleground state with a significant population of Arab American and Muslim voters.

Four years ago, President Biden won Michigan with strong backing from many of those Americans. But interviews this weekend with voters, activists and community leaders in the Detroit area suggested that support for the Democratic ticket has not merely eroded among Arab Americans and Muslims.

In some neighborhoods, it has all but vanished.

“I personally don’t know anyone who would vote for Harris,” said Imam Hassan Qazwini, who founded the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights and said that he planned to vote third party this year after supporting Mr. Biden in 2020 in his personal capacity. {snip}

Many of those voters are outraged by the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel as it has waged war in Gaza and now in Lebanon. That sentiment is intensifying as the fighting spreads across the Middle East less than a month before Election Day — and it is a warning sign for Ms. Harris in a closely divided state.

The discontent is palpable on the ground in Michigan, which has more than 300,000 residents with Middle Eastern or North African ancestry, though high-quality polling on Arab American and Muslim voters is scant. In nearly two dozen interviews this weekend with a range of these voters across levels of religious observance and familial countries of origin, just two said they were voting for her.

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{snip} Sereene Hijazi, 28, is part of Michigan’s significant Lebanese American population. Ms. Hijazi, who had long considered herself a Democrat, said she had no interest in Mr. Trump. But she could not bring herself to support Ms. Harris, either, she said, explaining that she was pained at the idea of American-supplied weapons endangering members of her family.

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To Ms. Hijazi’s husband, Hussein Beydoun, 27, Mr. Trump’s message about pulling back from foreign intervention was also appealing.

“He cares more about what’s going on in America,” said Mr. Beydoun, who said he supported Mr. Biden in 2020 but was now backing Mr. Trump. “The Democratic Party seems to care more about what’s going on in other countries versus their own people.”

For some of Ms. Harris’s supporters, the idea that Muslim or Arab voters would consider Mr. Trump at all is incomprehensible.

It was Mr. Trump, they note, who blocked citizens of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States; who has a long history of making racist and inflammatory comments; and who recently seemed to encourage Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Right-wing supporters of Israel often consider him an ally.

Ms. Harris and her campaign have been conducting outreach to Arab American and Muslim voters in Michigan and beyond. She met with community leaders while in the state on Friday. And she has also received some endorsements from current and former Arab and Muslim elected officials and leaders, and from the group Emgage Action, which focuses on building Muslim American political power.

Dr. Iltefat Hamzavi, the board chair of Emgage Foundation — Emgage’s nonpartisan voter engagement arm — said varied views about the election reflected the diversity of Muslim Americans, a group that includes Arab Americans but also Black and South Asian Americans. Ms. Harris, who would be the first female president, is Black and South Asian.

But, he added, “The biggest group is just, ‘I just don’t believe in the system.’”

In a statement, Nasrina Bargzie, the director of Muslim and Arab American outreach for the Harris campaign, said Ms. Harris was working “to earn every vote, unite our country, and to be a president for all Americans.”

“Vice President Harris has been steadfast in her support of our country’s diverse Muslim community,” Ms. Bargzie said.

The Uncommitted National Movement, which organized protest efforts against Mr. Biden during the primary race this year, has said it will not endorse Ms. Harris. But it has also warned supporters not to back Mr. Trump or third-party candidates.

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