A coalition of Muslim and Arab American leaders has expanded its movement to the swing states of Wisconsin and Georgia to keep Vice President Kamala Harris from winning the presidency, saying she is a “pro-genocide candidate.”
The group, which operates as “Abandon Harris,” announced the push into the battleground states on Friday. It also plans an extensive effort to steer voters away from Ms. Harris and toward Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate whom Abandon Harris has endorsed.
Hassan Abdel Salam, an Abandon Harris spokesman, said the group cannot support Ms. Harris because she has not aggressively pushed for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and rejected the idea of a full arms embargo to Israel.
He also accused Ms. Harris of “teasing” the potential of a cease-fire to appeal to Muslim and Arab American voters while doing little to stop the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Mr. Salam said the group’s “destiny” is to ensure Ms. Harris loses in swing states.
“We have become familiar with the way in which the president and vice president double-talk to our community by making vague allusions of ending the genocidal war while permitting the state of Israel to continue their attacks on innocent people on the verge of disintegration,” Mr. Salam told The Washington Times.
“The vice president engages in ‘cease-fire teasing’ — a common practice that began with [President Biden] — by claiming that a cease-fire is on the horizon while children, women, and men are in flames, burning before our eyes,” he said.
The Abandon Harris movement sought a meeting earlier this year with the vice president, but her campaign rejected the sit-down.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Muslim voters along with young progressives who view Israel as the villain in the conflict could create a problem for Ms. Harris in swing states.
In 2020, the election in Wisconsin was decided by just 20,000 votes, and it is home to roughly 40,000 Muslim voters, according to Census data. Ms. Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied in Wisconsin, data from the polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight revealed.
Among Muslim voters in Wisconsin, Ms. Harris trails Ms. Stein, who has repeatedly vowed to end what she calls the “genocidal war” in Gaza, according to a poll from Marquette University. Ms. Stein has 44% of the Muslim vote, compared with 39% for Ms. Harris and 8% for Mr. Trump.
Muslims across the country overwhelmingly backed President Biden for four years, with 86% of the vote compared with 6% supporting Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris are virtually tied in national polls among Arab Americans, 42% to 41%, according to a poll from the Arab American Institute. Among those who are likely to vote, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Harris 46% to 42%.
The polls suggest Mr. Trump is the beneficiary of the Arab community’s frustration and anger over the Biden administration’s failure to contain the war in Gaza.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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