Arab American leaders are listening as Kamala Harris moves to shore up key swing-state support

DEARBORN, Michigan — Osama Siblani’s phone keeps ringing.

Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his bid for re-election and Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major political parties have asked the publisher of Dearborn-based Arab American News whether Harris can win back the support of the nation’s largest Muslim population, based in metro Detroit.

His answer: “We are in listening mode.”

Harris, who is seeking the Democratic nomination after Biden leaves office, appears turn quickly tasked with convincing Arab American voters in Michigan, a state Democrats say she can’t afford to lose in November, that she is a leader they can unite behind.

Community leaders have shown a willingness to listen and some have had initial conversations with Harris’ team. Many had aggravated with Biden after feeling that months of contacts were not yielding much results.

“The door has been open since Biden left office,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. “There is an opportunity for the Democratic nominee to build the coalition that Biden made president four years ago. But that responsibility now falls to the vice president.”

Arab American leaders like Hammoud and Siblani are watching closely for signs that Harris will be more vocal in her push for a ceasefire. They are enthusiastic about her candidacy but want to make sure she is an advocate for peace and not an unequivocal supporter of Israel.

But Harris will have to walk a fine line not to publicly break with Biden’s position on the war in Gazawhere officials from his government have been working diligently towards a ceasefire, especially behind the scenes.

The divisions within Harris’ own party were on full display 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 were responded to with pepper spray and arrests.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian-American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held a sign reading “war criminal” during Netanyahu’s remarks.

Harris was not there.

Some Arab-American leaders are interpreting her absence as meaning she attended a rally instead. campaign event in Indianapolis — as a sign of good faith toward them, while acknowledging her ongoing responsibilities as vice president, including a meeting Thursday with Netanyahu.

Her first test within the community will come when Harris chooses a running mate. One of the names on her shortlist, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, has openly criticized pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say including him would deepen 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, so it doesn’t matter to Harris if she chooses him. It just says I’m going to follow Biden’s policies,” said Rima Meroueh, executive director of the National Network for Arab American Communities.

Arab Americans are betting that their vote in crucial swing states like Michigan will have enough electoral significance to ensure that officials will listen for them. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and the state’s majority-Muslim cities overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. He won Dearborn, for example, by a margin of about 3-to-1 over former President Donald Trump.

In February, more than 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan voted “uncommitted,” securing two delegates to protest the Biden administration’s unequivocal support for Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attacks. Nationally, “uncommitted” received a total 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 were calling for an arms embargo, I would work day and night every day until the election to get her elected,” said Abbas Alawieh, a “non-committed” delegate from Michigan and national leader of the movement. “There is a real opportunity now to unite the coalition. It is up to her to deliver, but we are cautiously optimistic.”

That division was on full display Wednesday night, when the Michigan Democratic Party rallied more than 100 delegates to rally behind Harris. During the rally, Alawieh, one of three state delegates who did not commit to Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him by turning on his microphone and telling him to “shut up,” using a profanity, Alawieh said.

The call could be a preview of the tensions expected to flare up again in August, when Democratic leaders, lawmakers and delegates gather in Chicago for the party’s national convention. Mass protests are planned, and the “non-committed” movement wants to make sure their voices are heard at the United Center, where the convention will be held.

Trump and his campaign, meanwhile, are acutely aware of the unrest within the Democratic base and are actively seeking support from Arab American voters. That effort has been complicated by Trump’s history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies during his single term as president.

Last week, a meeting was held in Dearborn between more than a dozen Arab-American leaders from across the country and several of Trump’s surrogates. Among the surrogates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanon-born businessman whose son married Tiffany Trump, the former president’s youngest daughter, two years ago. Boulos is using his connections to drum up support for Trump.

Part of the pitch Boulos and Bishara Bahbah, president of Arab Americans for Trump, made in Dearborn was that Trump is open to a two-state solution. He posted 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 during the meeting were that Trump needs to be clearer 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,” Bahbah said. “That’s what the community wants to hear in a clear way.”

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 affirmatively, saying, “100%.”

But any apparent political opportunity for Trump could be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans over the former president’s ban on immigration from various countries with an Islamic majority and comments that they found offensive.

“I haven’t heard anyone say I’m going to go to Donald Trump,” said Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn. “I haven’t heard that in any of the conversations I’ve had. They all know what Donald Trump stands for.”

Siblani, who organized Wednesday’s meeting with Trump’s surrogates, has for months served as a mediator between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. In private, he says, nearly all express the need for a permanent ceasefire.

“Everyone wants our votes, but no one wants to be seen openly as joining us,” Siblani said.