US elections 2024: Some Arab Americans look beyond Harris for place in Democratic Party
If you’re not coming up against any traffic, Michigan's downtown Detroit is just a 20-minute drive from the heart of Dearborn, known as the capital of Arab-majority America.
On Monday night, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz held his final campaign rally before election day, arriving after 1030pm local time at Detroit's Hart Plaza to deliver a five-minute address to a crowd of about two thousand people. They had been waiting since the doors opened five hours earlier.
A DJ kept the crowd on their toes with top 40 hits and TikTok-famous tunes until Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi and Michael Stipe of the 90s band REM took to the stage.
There was, without a doubt, a sense of hope, joy and confidence that this was the right place at the right time, for the right candidate, and the right party.
Tuesday’s vote, Walz said at the top of his remarks, boils down to the protection of women’s rights. It was a reference to the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority which overturned national abortion rights.
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The female-heavy crowd, young and old, showed up predominantly for that reason.
“She's a woman and she's for women,” one enthusiastic voter told Middle East Eye. “I'm a retired nurse. I like everything. She stands for good,” she said of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is competing against former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party for control of the White House.
“It’s setting a precedent,” another voter said. “Reproductive rights, women's rights, basic human rights… This is my life, my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids,” she told MEE.
Very few here seemed clued-in enough to what the Democrats, under the current administration, have carried out and supported in the Middle East.
The difference in the atmosphere could not be more stark from the Arab-majority suburbs.
There is a distinct sense of disillusionment and exhaustion, Layla Elabed of the Uncommitted movement, told MEE.
It feels nothing like 2020 and the swell of support for Joe Biden. Elders who had never voted before had mobilised to cast their ballots for him.
Elabed is the co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, which aimed to shift Democrats’ rhetoric and policy on Israel and Gaza, in a bid to retain the votes from Arabs and Muslims for the party. She also happens to be the sister of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who represents parts of Detroit and Dearborn.
The president and vice president did not heed the call of the Uncommitted movement and even refused a single speaking slot for a Palestinian during the Democratic National Convention that took place in August.
The group ended up doing what many are calling a defacto Harris endorsement because it made no official statement of support but insisted that Trump must not win.
Elabed told MEE she’s not voting for a presidential candidate. She will skip the top of the ballot in favour of the local races further down the list.
“A lot of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans don't have a lot of hope…They don't have, you know, excitement. They don't feel as if their vote is going to make a difference,” Elabed said.
“We're watching our own people being murdered with our own tax dollars,” she said, before breaking down in tears.
‘It’s a matter of life and death’
Ahmed Ghanim, a former Democratic congressional candidate, cast his ballot at 11am on Tuesday in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, not too far from Dearborn.
“I voted for the president that I think will work better for my community,” Ghanim told MEE after leaving the precinct.
“It was for the people that actually were still standing with us,” he added.
Ghanim made headlines last month after he posted a video online showing security personnel asking him to leave what was a small, invite-only event for the Harris campaign in Michigan, featuring Republican Liz Cheney.
He was one of the invitees, but after taking a seat, Ghanim was removed before the event began. The campaign later said it regrets the incident, but never explained why it happened.
“They disengaged the base that's supposed to be the most energetic base working for them,” Ghanim said.
“They left the Arabs and Muslims very confused,” especially after the Trump campaign swooped in to woo them."
After 13 months of Israel’s US-backed assault on Gaza and now Lebanon, and a combined minimum of 45,000 known dead, Ghanim indicated the stakes are the highest that they’ve ever been.
“For us, it’s a matter of life and death.”
And yet the outcome may change little, judging by the platforms of the two major parties. Ghanim admits there’s no celebration to be had in this community.
“We either will have a Democratic president that really ignored us and did not listen to us for a year… or it will be another person [who has a] history with the Muslims and [negative] views about minorities in general,” Ghanim said.
So does this former volunteer for the Obama, Clinton, and Biden campaigns still identify as a Democrat?
“I did not walk out of the Democratic Party. They kicked me out. And so the question is: is there room for the Muslims and Arabs in the Democratic Party after this election?”
'Rome wasn't built in a day'
Back at the Walz rally, at least one Arab thinks that there is still space in the party.
A scan of the crowd showed a singular rainbow-coloured Palestinian keffiyeh, draped across a man’s shoulders.
Salem Almaani flew from Republican-led Florida to be in the purple swing state of Michigan for this event.
“I'm gay. I'm Arab. I'm Muslim. I'm American. Coming out and being controversial is not new to me,” he told MEE as he stepped out of the crowd to grab a hot dog at a nearby food truck.
As MEE previously reported, many Arabs in the Detroit suburbs have come under fire from within their community and even been ostracised for the mere perception of intending to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.
“I understand in the short run, people might think this is a sellout vote,” Almaani said. “And I totally hear you. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
He has faith, he said, that Harris can be a commander-in-chief who enacts a ceasefire once she “steps out of the shadow of Biden”.
But Almaani said those within the Arab community need to step up, too.
“It's upon us to be more organised. We have not been organised as a community, and it's showing. It takes two to tango, right?”
“We need to… put our differences aside, but at the same time, we need the administration to pay attention to us and hear our concerns and stop fighting [in a] genocide.”
Asked whether he’s feeling trepidation about election day, Almaani told MEE that he is “cautiously optimistic”, especially as the final results may take a few days.
“It's gonna be a long ride. So sleep, moisturise, hydrate, do whatever you need to do.”
That sentiment is shared by Elabed, who herself has been heavily scrutinised for making room for Democrats as part of the Uncommitted movement.
She asked people to “vote their conscience” on Tuesday.
“Let’s give grace to each other because this has been incredibly difficult,” she said.
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