Arab-American Voters Could Impact Vice President Kamala Harris’s Electoral College Votes in Key Battleground States.
Arab-American voters, who traditionally vote for Democrats by a 2-to-1 ratio, are reportedly less supportive of Vice President Kamala Harris following the administration’s handling of the Hamas/Israel war that spread into Lebanon this month. A recent Arab American Institute poll showed former President Trump leading Harris among Arab voters by four points nationally. In 2020, President Joe Biden won 60 percent of their votes.
Michigan and Georgia are two key battleground states with large Arab-American populations. The Peach State has one of the fastest-growing Arab-American populations in the country, with around 43,000 individuals of Arab heritage, according to the Census Bureau. In addition, approximately 80,000 Americans of Arab descent live in Georgia, with about 50,000 residing in Atlanta.
Michigan also has a significant Arab-American population, with Dearborn, Michigan’s Arab-American population being the largest in the nation (110,000 residents) by density, according to the Associated Press. This represents about 3 percent of the Wolverine State’s population. In 2020, Biden enjoyed a roughly 3-to-1 advantage in Dearborn.
Even a small shift in the support in the community could have an incredibly large impact on the final outcome,” David Dulio, a political science professor at Michigan’s Oakland University, told the Hill. It’s a small portion of the coalition, but it’s a critical one.
Jim Zogby, the founding director of the Arab American Institute, explained that there are double troubles in the community – both the ongoing situation in Gaza and the new circumstance created in Lebanon. He questioned where Kamala Harris’ majority comes from if she loses a percentage of nonwhite voters, young voters, and a significant percentage of Arab-American voters.
Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman (D), who is supporting Harris, believes that the Harris campaign is doing a poor job in terms of outreach. The liaisons are doing their best, but they are not decisionmakers,” she told the Hill. But the concern right now is that decisionmakers are not engaging with the community directly.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has made efforts to reach out to Arab voters. The Trump campaign has targeted ads aimed at Arab communities, and Richard Grenell, Trump’s former director of national intelligence, as well as Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman, are working to build inroads with the community.
His level of outreach has been constant and recurring, and the fact that there’s been this outreach placing value and worth in our community and saying that we deserve a seat at the table, which hasn’t happened from the other side,” said Samraa Luqman, a Democrat Michigan activist who now endorses Trump, told the Hill.