Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has privately reached out to Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan who are devastated by the war in Gaza, a core Democratic constituency in a state that is key to President Biden\u2019s hopes of returning to the White House.<\/p>\n
Whitmer (D) has sought to mend the deep wounds in Michigan\u2019s sizable Arab American community sown by Biden\u2019s full-throated support of Israel. It\u2019s a high-wire act made all the more daunting because the governor is also a chair of Biden\u2019s reelection campaign and is widely perceived to have her own national ambitions.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Democratic presidential primary in the state, Whitmer has rejected efforts by an activist group to protest Biden\u2019s Israel policy by urging voters to cast their ballot for \u201cuncommitted.\u201d She is actively campaigning to get out the vote for Biden, and has warned in a statement that \u201cany vote that is not cast, or is cast for a third-party, or cast to \u2018send a message\u2019 makes it more likely that there is a Trump presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitmer is \u201cvery well respected in the community, but this issue, the Gaza issue, is becoming an issue against her,\u201d said Sufian Nabhan\u200b, executive director of the Islamic Center of Detroit, who voted \u201cuncommitted\u201d Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Whitmer\u2019s outreach to the Arab and Muslim communities is done privately, her allies say, and the governor has been in regular contact with people upset about the war and the Biden administration\u2019s role in it. She has exchanged text messages with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D), the only Palestinian American in Congress, who represents Dearborn, Mich., the city with the largest Arab American and Muslim population per capita in the nation. Tlaib\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. Tlaib\u2019s sister, Layla Elabed, runs Listen to Michigan, the activist group trying to garner at least 10,000 \u201cuncommitted\u201d votes in the primary.<\/p>\n
Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell said she\u2019s been in meetings with Whitmer and leaders in the Arab and Muslim American communities since Oct. 7, and that the governor has relayed their grief and anger to the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know for a fact the governor has been very direct with the president, the vice president, other people, about how people, how Palestinians in the Arab American community, feel in Michigan, that their families are being killed,\u201d Dingell said. \u201cShe represents everyone in Michigan, and she\u2019s trying to do what\u2019s right. And, trust me, you\u2019re in a minefield right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The political tension in Michigan is the latest example of how the conflict in the Middle East has fractured the Democratic Party over Israel\u2019s military response in Gaza following the Hamas-led terrorist massacre in Israel on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead and took some 250 others hostage. Israel launched a retaliatory military campaign in Gaza that has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and displaced close to 2 million, the United Nations reports.<\/p>\n
Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as young people and many on the left, have decried Israel\u2019s scorched-earth campaign, including a siege of Gaza in which it has cut off access to most food, water, electricity and other basic goods such as medicine. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are at risk of starvation and disease.<\/p>\n
Whitmer, widely seen as a potential top contender for the White House in 2028, has largely stayed out of the public debate since angering people on both sides of the issue with her early statements. On Oct. 7, the governor wrote on social media that \u201cwe need peace in this region,\u201d offending Jewish constituents for not explicitly condemning the attacks or naming Israel. A few days later, she clarified her position, saying, \u201cI\u2019m unequivocally supportive of Israel. And they have a right to defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after, Whitmer attended a large pro-Israel rally in Detroit. Several weeks later, she canceled a preplanned visit to Dearborn after some protested her visit over her support for Israel. At the end of January, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said in an interview: \u201cI haven\u2019t heard from Gretchen Whitmer in 110 days. \u2026 I think the sentiment that she shared was a very pro-Israeli government sentiment, and we haven\u2019t heard from her since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitmer and Hammoud finally spoke in early February after the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece about Dearborn headlined, \u201cWelcome to Dearborn, America\u2019s Jihad Capital.\u201d Whitmer excoriated the piece, calling it \u201ccruel and ignorant, and a total misrepresentation of an important city.\u201d She also directed the Michigan State Police to reach out to Hammoud to offer the city extra security. Whitmer reached out to Hammoud for the first time after the op-ed, according to a spokesperson for the mayor.<\/p>\n
Many in the Arab American and Muslim community say they have been disappointed and felt betrayed by Whitmer for not doing more outreach to their community and for failing to call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. In interviews with voters across Dearborn at the end of January, many cited Whitmer\u2019s decision to appear at the pro-Israel rally as one of the main reasons for their dismay at the governor, as well as her failure to appear at any of the state\u2019s many pro-Palestinian rallies where protesters have demanded a cease-fire.<\/p>\n
Michigan has become a sort of Rorschach test of how much Biden\u2019s unwavering support of Israel could impact his reelection prospects. The state has the country\u2019s largest population of Arab American and Muslim voters, who overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020. About 300,000 people in the state claim ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa, and more than 200,000 voters identify as Muslim \u2014 groups in which there is large overlap. The Arab American and Muslim community has been consumed by Israel\u2019s war in Gaza since October and has mobilized to flex its voting muscle in this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
Listen to Michigan is solely focused on Tuesday\u2019s primary and has made an energized push for the last three weeks to get as many people as possible to vote \u201cuncommitted\u201d rather than for Biden, aiming to send a warning that Biden\u2019s stance on Israel could cost him the state in November. Biden has few, if any, paths to victory without Michigan. A separate movement, called \u201cAbandon Biden,\u201d supports the uncommitted movement but is also determined to deny the president reelection in November. That group\u2019s leaders have not yet coalesced around a general election strategy \u2014 and will not support Donald Trump \u2014 but are weighing options such as endorsing a third-party candidate, writing in a candidate or abstaining from the presidential election but still voting in state and local elections.<\/p>\n
Leaders from those movements say they have not heard from Whitmer. Elabed said high-ranking Democrats\u2019 continued embrace of Israel \u201cfeels like a betrayal, not just of the president that these communities overwhelmingly supported in 2020, but also from the Democratic Party, who is not taking our movement seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden officials have long said they believe voters who disapprove of him now will eventually support him when the presidential contest becomes a head-to-head matchup with Trump. But some Democrats worry that Whitmer and Biden are not doing enough to win back disaffected voters and are disproportionately focused on suburban and swing voters.<\/p>\n
The president has studiously avoided interacting with the Arab American and Muslim community since the early weeks of the war. During a visit to Michigan earlier this month, Biden\u2019s team took unusual steps to keep the location of his visit secret in an effort to avoid protesters. Instead, he has dispatched top White House and campaign aides to conduct listening sessions with the community, which campaign officials said they will continue to do for the next several months.<\/p>\n
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Biden surrogate who has called for a cease-fire, visited Michigan last week to meet with the Arab American and Muslim community.<\/p>\n
Khanna has said Democrats must focus on building a modern coalition for the 2024 race and beyond. He is urging Biden and other Democrats to focus on energizing their core base \u2014 which includes young voters and people of color \u2014 rather than hoping they will support Democrats because Trump and Republicans are worse.<\/p>\n
He talks about \u201ctwo very distinct\u201d theories of electability in the key swing state: one focusing on suburban voters around the issues of democracy and abortion rights, winning back just enough of the Arab American community to nab the state. The other relies on inspiring the base in the same way as Trump \u2014 whose voters, he points out, are \u201cgoing across broken glass to vote for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s enough without the inspired base, and I don\u2019t think we get the inspired base without a dramatic change in foreign policy,\u201d Khanna said. \u201cThere is deep hurt, there is deep anger, there is deep sense of loss and grief, and there needs to be a fundamental shift in foreign policy as a first step to get back some of the trust. And I think there has to be a healing process after that before you can even start to talk about the electoral case for the president\u2019s reelection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitmer has largely focused her surrogate pitch for Biden\u2019s reelection on domestic issues, such as reproductive rights, warning that Trump will eliminate those freedoms. But many Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan wish she was talking more about the conflict overseas.<\/p>\n
Michigan co-chair Samraa Luqman of Abandon Biden said it was \u201cabsolutely abhorrent and disgusting\u201d that Whitmer had yet to call for a cease-fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a representative of one of the largest Muslim populations in the entire nation it is a betrayal and it is absolutely something that we will not forget when she tries to run for president,\u201d Luqman said.<\/p>\n
A Democratic leader in the Arab American community, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations between Whitmer and those affected by the Gaza war, said Whitmer continues to have a close relationship with the Michigan Arab American and Muslim communities, and that much of her work to cultivate those ties happens behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor has never been the type of person that says things publicly, to brag about certain relationships. But what I can tell you is, she has taken the time to speak to religious leaders [and] to community leaders, including myself,\u201d the Democratic leader said. \u201cIt\u2019s really more than just the politics, but to ask how people are doing because she understands that people in her community are going through pain and a hard time. And really, her commitment here speaks louder than some public information that people may be waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
But another leader in Michigan\u2019s Arab American community who has been critical of Whitmer scoffed at the governor\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf by meeting with the community you mean organizing meetings with people who yell at her and putting on a very practiced and concerned face and claiming you feel their pain, I guess she\u2019s doing that. Meanwhile kids in Gaza are getting blasted to the sky,\u201d said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about these private meetings.<\/p>\n
Nabhan, of the Islamic Center of Detroit, said Whitmer does have strong ties within the community, and that her role as governor insulates her because she does not control foreign policy. Yet he and other Arab American and Muslim leaders are refusing to meet with elected officials, including Whitmer, until they call for a permanent cease-fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she did not ask for a cease-fire and wanted to meet with me that means you want to talk about politics, not saving human lives,\u201d he said. \u201cJust to call for a cease-fire, it\u2019s the least anyone can do.\u201d Otherwise, he added, \u201cthey are agreeing to the genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has privately reached out to Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan who are devastated by the war in Gaza, a core Democratic constituency in a state that is key to President Biden\u2019s hopes of returning to the White House. Whitmer (D) has sought to mend the deep wounds in Michigan\u2019s sizable Arab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}