Arab-American leaders listen as Kamala Harris moves to bolster key swing state support
DEARBORN, MI: Osama Siblani's phone won't stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden dropped the presidential bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major parties asked the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News whether Harris could win back voters from the nation’s largest Muslim population in the Detroit metropolitan area.
His answer: “We are in listening mode.”
Harris, who is moving to seize the Democratic nomination after Biden steps down, appears to be moving quickly to convince Arab-American voters in Michigan, a state where Democrats believe she cannot lose in November, that she is a leader they can rally support around.
Community leaders have expressed a willingness to listen, and some have already had initial conversations with Harris’ team. Many feel worse about Biden after months of ineffective communication.
“The door has been open since Biden left,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said. “The Democratic nominee has the opportunity to build on the coalition that brought Biden to power four years ago. But now that responsibility lies with the vice president.”
Arab-American leaders like Hammoud and Siblani are watching for signs that Harris will be more vocal in pressing for a ceasefire. They are excited about her nomination but want to make sure she is pro-peace, not outright pro-Israel.
But Harris will have to tread carefully to avoid revealing Biden's position on the war in Gaza, where his administration is working diligently to achieve a ceasefire, largely in secret.
The divisions within Harris' own party were evident in Washington last week during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress. Some Democrats supported the visit, while others protested and refused to participate. Outside the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters were retaliated with pepper spray and arrested.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Talib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held a sign that read “war criminal” during Netanyahu’s speech.
Harris did not attend
Some Arab-American leaders interpreted her absence, in which she attended a campaign event in Indianapolis instead, as a gesture of loyalty to them, even as they acknowledged her ongoing responsibilities as vice president, which include a meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.
Her first test within the community will come when Harris picks a running mate. One of the names on the shortlist is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has publicly criticized pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab-American leaders in Michigan say putting him on the table will make them increasingly uneasy about the level of support they might expect from a Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first to criticize students on campus, so Harris’s pick doesn’t make anyone any different than him. It means I will continue to pursue the same policies as Biden,” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.
Arab Americans are betting that their votes will matter enough in key election states like Michigan that officials will listen to them. Michigan has the largest Arab-American population in the country, and cities in the Muslim-majority state overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. Biden, for example, won the election in Dearborn by about 3 to 1 over former President Donald Trump.
In February, more than 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters selected “non-principled,” receiving two delegates in protest of the Biden administration’s apparent support for Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Nationally, “non-principled” primary voters received a combined 36 delegates earlier this year.
The group leading the effort calls for at the very least a ban on all arms shipments to Israel and a permanent ceasefire.
“If Harris calls for a gun ban, I will be working around the clock every day until Election Day to get her elected,” said Abbas Alavieh, a “non-standing” Michigan representative and national leader of the movement. “There is a real opportunity now to unite the coalition. It is up to her to do it, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
The divide was evident Wednesday night, when Michigan Democrats gathered more than 100 delegates to offer to rally behind Harris. During the convention, Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not endorse Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him, muting him and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, according to Alawieh.
The call could be a preview of tensions expected to flare up again in August, when Democratic leaders, lawmakers and delegates convene in Chicago for the party's national convention. Massive protests are planned, and “Never Give Up” activists are determined to make their voices heard inside the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign are aware of the turmoil within the Democratic base and are aggressively seeking support from Arab-American voters, an effort complicated by Trump’s history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies during his one-term presidency.
A meeting between more than a dozen Arab-American leaders from around the country and several Trump representatives was held in Dearborn last week. Among the delegates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese businessman whose son married the former president's youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, two years ago. Boulos is using his connections to garner support for Trump.
Part of the proposal put forward by Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, president of the Arab Americans for Trump group in Dearborn, was that Trump express openness to a two-state solution. He posted a letter on social media from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to work for peace in the Middle East.
“The three main points that were discussed in this meeting were that Trump needs to be more clear that he wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, that he supports a two-state solution, and that there is no such thing as a Muslim ban,” Bahbah said. “That’s what the community needs to hear clearly.”
Before the July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump met with Bahbah, who pressed him on a two-state approach. Bahbah said Trump responded by saying “100 percent.”
But Trump's clear political prospects could be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans of the former president's ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries and remarks they feel are disrespectful.
“I’ve never heard anybody say that I’m running to Donald Trump right now. I haven’t heard that in any conversations that I’ve had. They all know what Donald Trump represents,” said Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn.
Siblani, who organized the meeting with Trump representatives on Wednesday, has spent months acting as a go-between for his community with officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. He said that in private, almost everyone has expressed the need for a permanent ceasefire.
“Everyone wants our votes, but nobody wants to be seen as agreeing with us in public,” Siblani said.
