DEARBORN, Michigan – Osama Siblani’s phone doesn’t stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, senior officials from both major political parties have been asking the Dearborn-based editor of Arab American News whether Harris can regain the support of the country’s largest Muslim population, located in metro Detroit.
His response: “We are in listening mode.”
Harris, who is pushing for the Democratic nomination following Biden’s resignation, appears to be spinning quickly to the task of convincing Arab-American voters in Michigan, a state Democrats believe she cannot lose in November, that she is a leader they can rally behind.
Community leaders expressed a willingness to listen, and some had initial conversations with Harris’ team. Many had was exasperated with Biden after they felt months of outreach didn’t produce much results.
“The door has been open since Biden left office,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. “There is an opportunity for the Democratic candidate to unite the coalition that launched Biden’s presidency four years ago. But that responsibility will now fall to the vice president.”
Arab-American leaders like Hammoud and Siblani are watching for signs that Harris will be more vocal in pushing for a ceasefire. They are excited about her candidacy, but want to be sure that she will be an advocate for peace and not an unequivocal supporter of Israel.
But Harris will need to walk a fine line to not publicly break with Biden’s position on the war in Gazawhere his administration officials have been working diligently towards a ceasefire, mostly behind the scenes.
The division 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, while others protested and refused to attend. Outside the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters they were met with pepper spray and arrests.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held up a sign that said “war criminal” during Netanyahu’s remarks.
Harris did not attend.
Some Arab-American leaders interpret her absence – instead, she attended a campaign event in Indianapolis — as a sign of good faith toward them, while acknowledging his ongoing responsibilities as vice president, including a Thursday meeting with Netanyahu.
His first test within the community will come when Harris chooses a running mate. One of his names on the list, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, has been public about his criticism of pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say putting him on the ticket would increase their unease about the level of support they could expect from a Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first to criticize students on campus. Therefore, he doesn’t differentiate Harris much if she chooses him. This just means I will continue with the same policies as Biden,” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.
Arab-Americans are betting that their vote has enough electoral significance in swing states like Michigan to ensure that employees will listen for them. Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and the state’s Muslim-majority cities overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. He won Dearborn, for example, by a roughly 3-to-1 margin over former President Donald Trump.
In February, more than 100,000 Democratic voters in the Michigan primary chose “uncommitted,” securing two delegates to protest the Biden administration’s unequivocal support for Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. Nationally, “discommitted” won a total of 36 delegates in the primaries earlier this year.
The groups leading this effort have called for – at a minimum – an embargo on all arms shipments to Israel and a permanent ceasefire.
“If Harris called for an arms embargo, I would work non-stop every day until the election to elect her,” said Abbas Alawieh, an “uncommitted” delegate from Michigan and national leader of the movement. “There is a real opportunity right now to unite the coalition. It’s up to her to deliver, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
Those divisions were on full display Wednesday night when the Michigan Democratic Party rallied more than 100 delegates to pressure them to unite behind Harris. During the meeting, Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not commit to Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him, unmuting himself and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, according to Alawieh.
The call could be a preview of the tensions that are likely to arise again in August when Democratic leaders, lawmakers and delegates gather in Chicago for the party’s national convention. Mass protests are planned and the “uncommitted” movement aims to ensure their voices are heard inside the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign are acutely aware of the turmoil within the Democratic base and are actively seeking support from Arab-American voters. That effort was complicated by Trump’s history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies during his only term as president.
A meeting between more than a dozen Arab American leaders from across the country and several Trump representatives was held in Dearborn last week. Among the surrogates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-born businessman whose son married Tiffany Trump, the former president’s youngest daughter, two years ago. Boulos is leveraging his connections to rally support for Trump.
Part of the speech that Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, president of Trump’s Arab-American Caucus, gave in Dearborn was that Trump showed openness to a two-state solution. He published a letter on social media from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and promised 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 the two-state solution, and that there is no such thing as a Muslim ban. ,” said Bahbah. “That’s what the community wants to hear clearly.”
Before a July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump also met with Bahbah, who pressed him on a two-state solution. According to Bahbah, Trump responded in the affirmative, saying “100%.”
But any apparent political opportunity for Trump may be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans over the former president’s ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries and comments they found insulting.
“I haven’t heard anyone say that I’m running for Donald Trump 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 represents.”
Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump surrogates, spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from 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 publicly as someone who is aligned with us,” Siblani said.
