Arab American leaders listen as Kamala Harris tries to shore up key swing-state support
DEARBORN, Michigan: Osama Siblani's phone won't stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major parties are asking Dearborn-based publisher Arab American News if Harris can regain his endorsement. the nation's largest Muslim population is located in metro Detroit.
His response: “We're in listening mode.”
Harris, poised to capture the Democratic nomination after Biden withdrew, appears to be quickly focused on the task of convincing Arab American voters in Michigan, a state Democrats believe she cannot afford to lose in November, that she is the frontrunner. they can unite behind each other.
Community leaders have expressed a willingness to listen, and some have held initial conversations with Harris' team. Many of them soured on Biden after they felt months of outreach hadn't yielded much.
“The door is broken because Biden resigned,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said. “There is an opportunity for the Democratic nominee to unify the coalition that launched the Biden presidency four years ago. But that responsibility will now fall to the vice president.”
Arab American leaders like Hammoud and Siblani are watching closely for signs that Harris will be more vocal in pushing for a cease-fire. They are excited about her candidacy, but they want to be sure she will be an advocate for peace and not an unequivocal supporter of Israel.
But Harris will have to walk a fine line to avoid publicly breaking with Biden's stance on the war in Gaza, where his administration's officials have been diligently working on a ceasefire, mostly behind the scenes.
The rift within Harris' own party was evident in Washington last week during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to address Congress. Some Democrats supported the visit, others protested and refused to attend. Outside the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters were met with pepper spray and arrests.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held up a “war criminal” sign during Netanyahu's remarks.
Harris did not attend.
Some Arab American leaders are interpreting her absence — she attended a campaign event in Indianapolis instead — as a show of good faith with them, though they acknowledge her continued duties as vice president, including Thursday's meeting with Netanyahu.
Her first test in the community comes when Harris chooses a running buddy. One of the names on her short list, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, has publicly criticized pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say putting him on the ticket would raise their concerns about the level of support they could expect from the Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first to criticize students on campus. So it doesn't make much of a difference to Harris if he picks him. It just says I'm going to continue the same policies as Biden,” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.
Arab Americans are betting that their vote carries enough electoral weight in key states like Michigan to make sure officials listen. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and the state's majority-Muslim cities overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. For example, Dearborn won by a roughly 3-1 margin over former President Donald Trump.
In February, more than 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters voted “not committed,” securing two delegates to protest the Biden administration's unequivocal support for Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. At the beginning of this year, a total of 36 delegates were won nationally in the primaries.
The groups leading the effort called for — at a minimum — an embargo on all arms shipments to Israel and a permanent cease-fire.
“If Harris had called for an arms embargo, I would have worked around the clock every day until the election to get it elected,” said Abbas Alawieh, a “non-committal” delegate from Michigan and a national leader of the movement. “Right now there is a real opportunity to unify the coalition. It's up to her to deliver, but we're cautiously optimistic.”
Those divisions were on full display Wednesday night as the Michigan Democratic Party gathered more than 100 delegates to urge them to unite behind Harris. Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not commit to Harris, was speaking during the meeting when another delegate interrupted him by muting him and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, according to Alawieh.
The call could be a harbinger of tensions expected to resurface in August, when Democratic leaders, lawmakers and delegates gather in Chicago for the party's national convention. Mass protests are planned and the “non-aligned” movement intends to make sure their voices are heard at the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Trump and his campaign, meanwhile, are acutely aware of the unrest in the Democratic base and are actively seeking the support of Arab American voters. That effort has been complicated by Trump's history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies during his one term as president.
Last week, a meeting was convened in Dearborn between more than a dozen Arab American leaders from around the country and several Trump surrogates. Among the replacements was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-born businessman whose son married Tiffany Trump, the former president's younger daughter, two years ago. Boulos is using his connections to support Trump.
Part of the sentiment Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, the chairwoman of Arab Americans for Trump, delivered in Dearborn was that Trump has shown openness to a two-state solution. He posted a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on social media, pledging to work for peace in the Middle East.
“The three main points that were made in the meeting were that Trump needs to state more clearly that he wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and that he supports a two-state solution and that there is no such thing as a Muslim ban,” he added. said Bahbah. “That's what the community wants to hear in a clear way.”
Before the July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump also met with Bahbah, who pressed him on the two-state solution. According to Bahbah, Trump responded in the affirmative, saying, “100 percent.”
But any apparent political opportunity for Trump may be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans of the former president's ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries and remarks they saw as offensive.
“I haven't heard any individuals saying I'm rushing to Donald Trump right now,” said Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn. “I haven't heard that in any of the conversations I've had. Everyone knows what Donald Trump stands for.”
Siblani, who organized Wednesday's meeting with Trump's surrogates, has spent months as a liaison between his community and representatives of all political parties and foreign dignitaries. Privately, he says, almost everyone expresses the need for a permanent ceasefire.
“Everyone wants our votes, but no one wants to be seen as publicly joining us,” Siblani said.
