Mideast conflict has some longtime Democrats in battleground Michigan turning away from Kamala Harris
Ann Arbor, Michigan — Hind Omar is a Palestinian-American mother from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She and her husband Andrew are longtime Democrats who feel let down by the party and President Biden.
“We canvassed for Biden,” Omar said. “We showed up for Biden. And this experience during his administration under his watch has been a betrayal.”
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel — which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities — more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s assault aimed at eliminating Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which says the majority of those have been women and children but does not differentiate between civilian and combatant casualties.
Watching the ongoing war in Gaza has prompted Hind and her entire family to consider leaving the presidential box on the ballot blank.
“Where the Democratic Party used to be the soft place that we would land, it has now become the aggression against our community,” Hind said.
It’s a major vulnerability for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been criticized for a lack of outreach to the community. Her speech this week in Ann Arbor was interrupted by a group protesting the war.
“We all want this war to end as soon as possible and to get the hostages out,” Harris told the crowd Monday. “And I will do everything in my power to make it so.”
While the Biden administration has pushed for a cease-fire in the war, it has also maintained its steady support of Israel, and in August it approved $20 billion in arms sales for the Israeli military.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” last month, Harris said that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” but added that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. This war has to end.”
Four years ago, President Biden won Michigan by just over 150,000 votes. Now, the over 200,000 largely disillusioned Arab and Muslim American voters in this battleground state could swing the election to former President Donald Trump, who has said Israel should “finish what they started.”
Hind said she is not comfortable with the fact that an uncommitted vote could lead to a Trump victory because “that administration will be staunchly worse for our community.”
However, she feels betrayed by the Biden administration.
“This level of betrayal, no one even saw it coming, and so that’s what people are reconciling with right now,” Hind said.
Among those reconciling that is Joshua Feinstein, a Jewish American Democrat who has family in Lebanon, where the militant group Hezbollah is based. Israel and Hezbollah have been regularly engaged in rocket and missile attacks since last year, but the situation escalated in September, when Israel began launching strikes on Beirut, before beginning a limited ground incursion into Lebanon.
“I speak to them daily,” an emotional Feinstein said of his family. “They are being bombed.”
Israel’s invasion of Lebanon has pushed Feinstein to vote for the Green Party’s Jill Stein over Harris.
“I’m not voting to punish anyone,” Feinstein said. “I’m not making a protest. I’m saying my vote hasn’t been earned.”
Now, this group of powerful voters are sending what they call a final message.
“You are not committed to us,” Feinstein said. “We will not be committed to you.”
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