Inside Arab And Muslim Democrats' Last-Minute Push To Get Harris Over The Finish Line

[RandySF]

Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan and around the country are mounting a last-minute push to convince their compatriots to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day next week, despite Harris and President Joe Biden’s continued funding of the Israeli military’s invasions of Gaza and Lebanon.

The push, consisting of endorsements and public appearances, comes as polling continues to show a tight race in Michigan, where 300,000 residents of Middle Eastern descent could play a make-or-break role if the election is close enough.

Republicans, meanwhile, have wooed their own Muslim and Arab leaders and are seizing on Harris’ use of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as a surrogate to muddy the waters on former President Donald Trump’s approach to the Middle East.

The highest-profile moment of the Democratic effort came on Monday night, when Assad Turfe, the deputy executive of Wayne County, Michigan, took the stage at Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He had a difficult assignment: Create a permission structure for his fellow Arab and Muslim American Michiganders to get behind Harris.



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harris-michigan-arabs-muslims-final-push_n_67214f80e4b04165810af650

[Behind the Aegis]

1. One co-founder of the Uncommitted movement will vote for Harris -- the other will not

In a split illuminating the difficult choice facing Democrats who supported the pro-Palestinian Uncommitted movement in the primaries, one of the movement’s co-founders will vote for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris while the other plans to leave the top line of her ballot blank.

The dilemma: vote for Harris, who dismissed their demand for an arms embargo against Israel, or, by refusing to do so, effectively boost Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has shown little sympathy for their cause.

It also shows the continued uncertainty over how the Uncommitted — which rallied an estimated 700,000 voters in the primaries to protest President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war — will cast ballots in this exceedingly tight race for the presidency.

Uncommitted co-founder Abbas Alawieh, a Lebanese American and former chief of staff to Rep. Cori Bush, said on CNN Tuesday that he is voting for Harris even though his movement is not endorsing her. (He had previously made similar statements to other news outlets.) His co-founder, Layla Elabed, told NBC News last week that she will not vote in the presidential race, though she will vote for candidates down ballot.

“She hasn’t earned my vote,” Elabed said of Harris, who has repeatedly committed herself to ensuring Israel’s security, and also said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “horrific.”

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Hopefully, there will be more realists than myopic assholes.