Vice President Harris is facing growing signs that Arab American and Muslim voters are souring on her in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Georgia as anger rises over the expanding conflict in the Middle East.
A new poll from the Arab American Institute showed former President Trump leading Harris with those voters by 4 points nationally, amid criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s wars against Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza.
The survey comes as Trump and third-party candidates like Jill Stein have stepped up outreach to the more than 200,000 Arab American and Muslim voters in Michigan, one of seven key battlegrounds that could determine who controls the White House.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, leaders have begun sounding the alarm that the more than 150,000 Arab American and Muslim voters there might not turn out in a state President Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020.
“There's double trouble that has to be addressed, both the ongoing situation in Gaza but also the now new circumstance created in Lebanon,” said Jim Zogby, the founding director of the Arab American Institute and a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I don't know where Harris's majority comes from if you're losing a percentage of nonwhite voters, a percentage of young voters, and a significant percentage of Arab American voters. I don't know where you get the rest from.”
According to David Dulio, a political science professor at Oakland University in Michigan, Arab and Muslim Americans have been “critical” to the Democratic coalition built in the state.
“Even a small shift in the support in the community could have an incredibly large impact on the final outcome,” Dulio said. “I think, you know, that it's a small portion of the coalition, but it's a critical one.”
As Israel expands the conflict into Lebanon, Democrats in Michigan are sounding the alarm bell.
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