Arab American voters in Dearborn, Michigan said that they decided to support President-elect Trump in order to protest Vice President Harris' stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
"They didn’t vote for Trump because they believe Trump is the best candidate," Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani told Politico. "No, they voted for Trump because they want to punish the Democrats and Harris."
Muslim voters favored Harris by 32 percentage points. Trump won 32% of their vote, while Harris won 63%. In 2020, Biden had won 64% of the Muslim vote, and Trump had won 35%.
While Trump faced mixed support from Muslim and Arab American voters, in swing states like Michigan, their support became especially crucial. Mike Hachem, a Dearborn-based leader of the Abandon Biden movement, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that Trump's visits to Michigan were appreciated by voters.
"They were seeing that President Trump was giving a little attention to the Arab and Muslim community and Vice President Harris was sort of shutting down our community," Hachem said.
Other voters, including Amer Zahr, said that the anger over the Biden administration's policies in Gaza caused them to become "much more politically mature" and active.
HOW HARRIS WAS DOGGED BY 'BORDER CZAR' LABEL, PAST RADICAL IMMIGRATION VIEWS DURING FAILED CAMPAIGN
"The Democrats did this," Zahr told Politico. "They created a situation where Donald Trump was walking around our city, putting his feet up, shaking hands, kissing babies and Harris didn’t even enter our community. She was afraid."
Dearborn city council president Michael Sareini told Politico that Arab American voters "wanted to send a message and they did."
Other voters told Politico that they have been exhausted by the news following the Israel-Hamas war.
"I wake up in the morning, I turn on the news just to see which village was leveled to the ground and who was killed," Sam Baydoun, Wayne County commissioner, told Politico. "This is the daily routine we have here in Michigan."
Trump "was able to say some things that made them think maybe he’s really on our side," political organizer Ismael Ahmed said. "Or maybe he’ll fix the economy in a way that no one else will. And it worked."
Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
