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‘We will change the vote’: Muslim Americans gather in Michigan to launch #AbandonBiden campaign

December 3, 2023 | | Print Article

Joe Biden may have a hard time scoring a 2024 victory in the swing states he won in 2020.

A group that has historically voted Democrat — Arab Americans — launched on Saturday an “#AbandonBiden” campaign in Dearborn, Michigan, gathering together Muslim American leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania to express their outrage over President Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

“This #AbandonBiden 2024 conference is set against the backdrop of the upcoming 2024 presidential election and the decision to withdraw support for President Biden due to his unwillingness to call for a ceasefire and protect innocents in Palestine and Israel,” the group said in a statement, according to Axios. “Leaders from swing states will work together to guarantee Biden’s loss in the 2024 election.”

Jaylani Hussein, director of Minnesota’s Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter, dismissed the notion that abandoning Biden means supporting former President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.

Speaking at a Dearborn press conference, Hussein said, “We don’t have two options. We have many options.”

“We’re not supporting Trump,” he stated.

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Noting that he was voicing his own opinions and not those of CAIR, Hussein added that the Muslim community would determine how other candidates are interviewed.

“Muslim Americans said they did not expect Trump to treat their community any better if reelected but saw denying Biden votes their only means to shape U.S. policy,” explains Reuters.

Biden may have received the majority of Arab American votes in 2020, but a recent poll reveals that support for the president among that group has now plummeted to just 17%.

“That could be decisive in a state like Michigan where Biden won by 2.8 percentage points and Arab Americans account for 5 percent of the vote, according to the Arab American Institute,” Reuters notes.

Dr. Tarek Amin represents Wisconsin’s Muslim community, which boasts roughly 25,000 voters. Biden won the state by just 20,000 votes in 2020, according to Amin.

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“We will change the vote,” he vowed, “we will swing it.”

In Arizona, Biden squeaked by on just 10,000 votes in a state where there are more than 25,000 Muslim voters, Phoenix pharmacist Hazim Nasaredden said, citing numbers from the US Immigration Policy Center at the University of California San Diego.

“We will not stand with a man who has tainted a blue wave with red drops of blood,” Nasaredden told Reuters.

Muslim leaders are well aware that their actions may spell a Trump victory, but Hussein believes it is worth the risk.

“We recognize that, in the next four years, our decision may cause us to have an even more difficult time,” he said, according to Axios. “But we believe that this will give us a chance to recalibrate, and the Democrats will have to consider whether they want our votes or not.”

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On X, many supporters of the Palestinians in Gaza are skeptical of the #AbandonBiden movement.

“If Biden loses Trump will win and he will let Israel go literally nuclear on Gaza,” stated one user. “Then you will know what genocide REALLY looks like.”

Melissa Fine
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