Washington DC – Joe Biden’s support among Arab-American voters in battleground states plummeted during the war in Gaza, a new poll found, in the latest sign that the US president’s support for Israel could hurt him in the November election.
The Arab American Institute (AAI) poll released on Thursday showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans hovering at just under 20 percent.
Biden won nearly 60 percent of the Arab-American vote in the 2020 US presidential election, which saw him defeat his Republican predecessor and 2024 challenger Donald Trump to win the White House.
James Zogby, president of the AAI, said Arab-Americans “are still furious about the pain of Gaza,” where more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes since the beginning of October.
“And they’re not willing to let that go,” Zogby said during a webinar revealing the survey’s findings. “Just because you say, ‘You don’t remember four years ago how bad it was [under Trump]?’ They say, ‘Don’t you see how bad it is now?’”
Biden has faced months of protests and criticism for his unequivocal military and diplomatic support for Israel during the war in Gaza.
Despite growing anger at Israel’s offensive and warnings that he risks losing re-election due to his stance, the US president’s policy remains largely unchanged.
Despite the relatively small size of the Arab-American community – the AAI estimates that about 3.7 million Arab-Americans live in the country of about 333 million people – it remains a key voting bloc in several states that could decide the 2024 race.
During the Democratic primaries, Biden faced a “disengagement movement” that saw Americans cast protest votes to show their opposition to the administration’s policies in Gaza.
The campaign gained momentum in several key states, including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Respondents in Thursday’s AAI poll live in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all key states that could decide what is expected to be a tight race between Biden and Trump in November.
Of the Arab-American voters surveyed, regardless of their party affiliation, 40 percent said they were “not at all excited” about the election.
An even higher percentage of Arab American voters aged 18 to 34 47 percent said the same, while 50 percent of Democratic Party voters also said they were “not at all enthusiastic.”
According to Zogby, this lack of enthusiasm should be particularly concerning for Biden, whose Democratic Party has historically enjoyed support from young people, progressives, Black voters and other communities of color.
“I’ve seen voters stay home more often when they don’t feel inspired,” Zogby said. “And so the binary choice these voters will have in November is not Trump or Biden – it is to vote or not to vote.”
Meanwhile, a recent New York Times/Siena poll showed Biden trailing Trump in the key states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.
The decline in support from young people and racial minorities was fueled by several factors, including the cost of living and the war in Gaza, the poll found.
Earlier this month, a YouGov poll commissioned by Americans for Justice in Palestine Action also found that one in five Democratic and independent voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Wisconsin said they were less likely to vote for Biden as a result of his politics in Gaza.
The group called the number potentially a “critical margin.”
The war in Gaza was the top issue for Arab-American voters surveyed in the latest AAI poll, with 60 percent listing it as their top concern, followed by the cost of living.
Some 57 percent of respondents also said that Gaza will be “very important” in determining their vote in November.
In all, AAI calculated that Biden could see a potential loss of 177,000 Arab-American votes in the four states where voting was held, compared to the 2020 election.
This includes a drop of 91,000 Arab-American votes in Michigan, where Biden won the last election by just over 154,000 votes.
Zogby said the poll should serve as a warning to the president, while noting that respondents said it was not too late for him to change his policies.
About 80 percent of Arab-American Democrats said they would be more likely to vote for Biden in November if he demanded an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded aid to Gaza or suspended diplomatic support and arms transfers to Israel to force an end. of war.
“People want to see that the president is actually listening to their concerns and really taking control,” Zogby said.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
