Muslim Americans In Key Swing States Declare They'll Ditch Biden In 2024 Over Gaza Policy
Democrats in Michigan have put the White House on notice, warning that his policies on Gaza have turned the Arab American community against him to the point of possibly being able sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
What's more is that Biden's supporters are quicky turning on him in some key swing states. "Increasingly, they have amplified their warnings, telling Biden’s team that frustrations among Arab Americans and Muslims could hurt him in the presidential race next year," Politico has highlighted. "While those voters make up a small portion of the electorate, they can be a key bloc in tightly contested battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Exit polls show a clear majority of Muslims voted for Biden in 2020."
Dearborn, Michigan in particular has a huge Arab American community, with many of these being Muslims as well as Palestinian Christians. The broader Detroit area is home to many Palestinian-Americans. They have become outraged over Biden's refusal to impose conditions on military aid given to Israel, as the civilian death toll soars.
Minneapolis-based activist Jaylani Hussein has said, "Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars," and emphasized "What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy."
This growing anger is leading to greater political organizing, as the AP has pointed out in describing, "Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania gathered behind a lectern that read Abandon Biden, ceasefire now in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States."
The aforementioned Hussein said the following words to the weekend conference to resounding applause:
"We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself."
"The anger in our community is beyond belief. One of the things that made us even more angry is the fact that most of us actually voted for President Biden," he highlighted to the AP. "I even had one incident where a religious leader asked me, 'How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?'"
According to more from the AP:
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were critical components of the "blue wall" of states that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020. About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country's population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center.
But leaders said Saturday that the community's support for Biden has vanished as more Palestinian men, women and children are killed in Gaza.
Activists at the conference were further quoted as saying their rejection of Biden doesn't necessarily translate into support for Republican front-runner Donald Trump, but they intend to make Biden pay as long as he persists on his current Israel policy track.
On Sunday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby made appearances on the major Sunday shows, and tried to explain that the US received 'assurances' from Israel that its military is not targeting Palestinian civilians. These repeat attempts to address growing international and domestic pressure will likely be seen as weak and 'too little, too late' among Muslim Americans.
