Arab American leaders listen as Kamala Harris seeks to shore up key support for fragile state
DEARBORN, Michigan: Osama Siblani's phone doesn't stop ringing.
Just days after President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination, top officials from both major political parties asked the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News , whether Harris can regain support the nation's largest Muslim population is in metro Detroit.
His response: “We're in listening mode.”
Harris, who is seeking the Democratic nomination after Biden stepped down, appears to be turning quickly to the task of convincing Arab voters in Michigan, a state Democrats believe she cannot afford to lose in November, that she is with 'is a leader they can rally behind.
Community leaders have expressed a willingness to listen, and some have had initial conversations with Harris' team. Many have soured on Biden after feeling months of outreach didn't yield much.
“The door has been open since Biden left office,” said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud. “For the candidate from the Democratic Party, there is an opportunity to unite the coalition that opened the presidency to Biden four years ago. But now this responsibility rests with the vice president.”
Arab American leaders such as Hammoud and Siblani are watching closely for signs that Harris will push harder 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 have to walk a fine line in not publicly undermining Biden's position on the war in Gaza, where officials in his administration have been working diligently on a ceasefire, mostly behind the scenes.
The split in Harris's party was evident in Washington last week during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress. Some Democrats supported the visit, while others protested and refused to attend. Near the Capitol, pro-Palestinian protesters were met with pepper spray and arrests.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress whose district includes Dearborn, held a sign reading “war criminal” during Netanyahu's speech.
Harris was not present.
Some Arab American leaders are interpreting her absence — she attended a campaign event in Indianapolis instead — as a sign of good faith with them, though they acknowledge her ongoing duties as vice president, including Thursday's meeting with Netanyahu.
Her first test in the community will be when Harris chooses a partner. One of the names on her short list, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, is a public critic of pro-Palestinian protesters and is Jewish. Some Arab American leaders in Michigan say including him on the ticket will increase their anxiety about the level of support they can expect from the Harris administration.
“Josh Shapiro was one of the first to criticize students on campus. So it doesn't make much of a difference to Harris when she chooses him. It just means that I'm going to continue the same policies that Biden did,” said Rima Meroue, director of the National Network of Arab American Communities.
Arab Americans are betting that their voice matters enough in key states like Michigan to ensure that officials will listen. Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and in 2020 the majority of Muslim cities in the state supported Biden. For example, he won Dearborn by a roughly 3-to-1 margin over former President Donald Trump.
In February, more than 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters chose “no commitment,” winning two delegates to protest the Biden administration's unequivocal support for Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. Nationally, the underdog won a total of 36 delegates in the primary earlier this year.
The groups leading the effort have called for, at a minimum, an embargo on all arms shipments to Israel and a permanent cease-fire.
“If Harris had called for an arms embargo, I would have worked around the clock every day until the election to get it elected,” said Abbas Alawieh, a “disaffected” delegate from Michigan and a national leader of the movement. “Now there is a real opportunity to unite the coalition. It's up to her to deliver, but we're cautiously optimistic.”
Those divisions were on full display Wednesday night, when the Michigan Democratic Party gathered more than 100 delegates to direct them to rally behind Harris. During the meeting, Alavia, one of three state delegates who did not address Harris, was speaking when another delegate interrupted him by turning on the sound and telling him to “shut up,” using an expletive, Alavia said.
The call could be a preview of tensions that are expected to resurface in August when Democratic leaders, lawmakers and delegates gather in Chicago for the party's national convention. Mass protests are planned, and the “disaffected” movement intends to make their voices heard at the United Center, where the convention will be held.
Meanwhile, Trump and his campaign are well aware of the turmoil in the Democratic base and are actively seeking the support of Arab American voters. That effort has been complicated by Trump's history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies during his one term as president.
Last week, a meeting was convened in Dearborn between more than a dozen Arab American leaders from around the country and several Trump surrogates. Among the surrogates was Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-born businessman whose son married the former president's youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, two years ago. Boulos is using his connections to rally support for Trump.
Boulas and Bishara Bahba, chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, said part of the Dearborn speech was that Trump showed openness to a two-state solution. He published a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on social media and promised to work for peace in the Middle East.
“The three main points that were made at the meeting were that Trump should make it 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 “- said Bachbach. “This is what the community wants to hear in a clear way.”
Before the July 20 rally in Michigan, Trump also met with Bachbach, who pressed him for a two-state solution. According to Bachbach, Trump responded in the affirmative, saying, “100 percent.”
But any clear political opportunities for Trump could be limited by criticism from many Arab Americans of the former president's ban on immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries and remarks they found offensive.
“I haven't heard anyone say I'm rushing to Donald Trump right now,” said Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn. “I haven't heard that yet in any of the conversations I've had. They all know what Donald Trump is.”
Siblani, who arranged Wednesday's meeting with Trump's surrogates, has spent months serving as an intermediary between his community and officials from all political parties and foreign dignitaries. In private, he says, almost everyone speaks about the need for a permanent ceasefire.
“Everyone wants our votes, but no one wants to be seen publicly as with us,” Siblani said.