Widespread anger among Arab Americans and Muslims regarding U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza and Lebanon could jeopardize Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances in the upcoming election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein told Reuters on Sunday.
Current polls indicate Stein is receiving only 1% of support in the November 5 election, while Harris and her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, are nearly tied at 49% and 48%, respectively.
However, Stein’s backing is increasing among Arab Americans and Muslims in key states like Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin, where significant populations contributed to President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
“The Democrats have lost the Muslim American and the Arab American vote,” Stein told Reuters after a rally attended by about 100 people in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn.
“They’re going to be losing enough swing states that they will not win and they cannot win.”
A Cook Political Report poll conducted from September 19-25 indicated that Harris was either leading or tied with Trump in nearly all seven pivotal states for the election: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina.
However, Stein, who is advocating for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate U.S. arms embargo on Israel, captured 40% of the Muslim vote in Michigan according to an August poll by the Council on American Islamic Relations. This poll also showed her ahead of both Harris and Trump among Muslim voters in Arizona and Wisconsin.
Stein suggested that Democrats could regain these voters by advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and halting arms sales to Israel, but noted there has been no indication of such action.
The Biden administration, along with allies like France, has called for a 21-day ceasefire along the Israel-Lebanon border and has expressed ongoing support for a ceasefire in Gaza, yet achieving agreements has proven difficult.
When asked about her role as a potential “spoiler,” Stein acknowledged that while another Trump presidency would be “terrible,” four more years of Democratic control would also be detrimental, citing issues like high rental costs, ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and attacks on civil liberties.
“This is a very dire situation that will be continued under both Democrats and Republicans. So we say there is no lesser evil in this race,” she said.
Harris has ramped up her outreach efforts recently, meeting with a small group of Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, and sending her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, to participate in a Muslim Zoom call.
Farah Khan, co-chair of the Abandon Harris campaign in Michigan, said she would vote for a third-party candidate. “We are trying to … punish Harris,” she said. “We may not be in a large (enough) number to put somebody in office, but we are definitely in the numbers to take somebody out of the office.”
Trump is also courting Arab and Muslim voters, having opened a campaign office on Saturday in Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb where Yemeni-American Mayor Amer Ghalib has endorsed him.
Stein noted that Harris is also losing support among certain union workers, Black men, and Latinos, many of whom are moving away from their traditional backing of the Democratic Party.
“Working people feel abandoned and betrayed by the Democratic Party,” she said. “It’s not like the Republicans are making things good for working people, but because the Democrats make promises and betray them, they seem to be punished by their traditional base,” she said. “That train has left the station.”
