As expected, the Democratic presidential ticket got a boost in support from the nation’s 2.5 million registered Muslim voters after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. However, more than a third are still planning to vote for a third-party candidate after the Democratic National Convention (DNC) left simmering anger over U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza largely unaddressed.
Up to 69 percent of registered Muslims report voting primarily for the Democratic Party, but third-party presidential candidates who oppose sending weapons to Israel have roughly cut that majority in half, according to two national surveys released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Thursday.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are virtually tied, with about 29 percent of Muslims planning to vote for each candidate, according to a survey of 1,159 voters conducted shortly after the DNC. Another 4 percent plan to vote for Cornel West, the unaffiliated antiwar candidate who is still fighting to be on the ballot in multiple states.
Just over 11 percent plan to vote for Republican Donald Trump, and 16 percent remain undecided. Only 8 percent said they are not planning to vote in November.
“This is showing that Muslim voters who traditionally in the last election voted over 60 percent for Biden, that 60 percent has evenly split now between two candidates who have two very different messages that are addressing their concerns,” said Robert McCaw, CAIR’s director of government affairs, during a press conference Thursday.
The contrast between Stein and Harris is clear. Stein, a Jewish anti-Zionist, is urging voters to “abandon pro-genocide candidates” and was arrested during a police crackdown on a Palestine solidarity protest at Washington University in St. Louis earlier this year.........