Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Endorse Kamala Harris for President Due to Gaza Policy

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) refused to issue an explicit endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday, instead encouraging voters to throw their support behind candidates who support a ceasefire in Gaza. 

While speaking on a panel at the Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, an event sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Tlaib expressed dismay over Harris’s unwillingness to adopt policies advocated by the pro-Palestinian movement. The Michigan congresswoman suggested that the Harris campaign was taking a “risk” in angering voters by continuing to support Israel’s defensive military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Tlaib told moderator Mehdi Hasan, a progressive journalist and prominent critic of Israel, that some of her constituents in Michigan did not want to cast a ballot for Harris, the incumbent US vice president, because they “don’t want blood on my hands.”

“I tell them, ‘OK, but there’s other people on this ballot that support a ceasefire. There’s other people on this ballot that can protect our community,'” Tlaib said. 

“I always ask, consistently, the Harris campaign and everybody, you hear us loud and clear. Don’t risk it. Don’t risk it. Why are we afraid of [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump becoming president more than our own party, when the majority of us are saying, ‘We’ve got your back Harris. We’ve got you?'” Tlaib continued. 

Hasan then asked Tlaib if she planned on endorsing Harris’s presidential bid. Tlaib would not confirm whether she supports the Democratic nominee, smirking and turning in her seat away from the moderator. 

The entire conference room burst into laughter. 

Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American state representative from Georgia, questioned whether the Harris campaign would “want” an endorsement from the Arab American community. The lawmaker stated that she “wanted to give” her endorsement to Harris at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), but was rejected by the party establishment.

Anti-Israel activists mounted a last-minute, high-pressure campaign to secure Romman a spot on the DNC stage. Their efforts ultimately failed, as the DNC refused to platform a Palestinian American during the event. Though the DNC has not issued an official justification for allegedly snubbing Romman, many observers speculated that the party feared she would use her stage time to lob unsubstantiated accusations of “genocide” against the Jewish state. 

Tlaib has not publicly endorsed Harris in the 2024 presidential race. The Michigan congresswoman also did not issue an endorsement during US President Joe Biden’s now-shuttered re-election campaign. 

Earlier this year, Tlaib helped spearhead the “Uncommitted” movement in Michigan — an initiative which encouraged voters to withhold their support for the Democratic nominee until they adopted anti-Israel policies. Tlaib argued that the initiative was necessary because Arab Americans have supposedly felt “neglected” and “unseen” by the federal government.

The “Uncommitted” movement has urged Harris to throw her support behind a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo against Israel. The Harris campaign has repeatedly stated that she as president would remain committed to Israel’s defense and refused to back an arms embargo.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American woman in Congress, has often accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and of orchestrating a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” and erecting an “apartheid” regime in the West Bank. 

In the months following the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel, Tlaib has grown more vocal in her condemnations of the Jewish state. Tlaib received heavy condemnation after she initially hesitated to condemn the Oct. 7 massacre and voted against legislation which would have banned participants in the terrorist attacks from entering the United States. The House voted to censure Tlaib in November 2023 over her rhetoric on the Israel-Hamas war. 

In February, Tlaib was the only voting member of the House to refuse to back a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 mass rapes of Israeli women. In May, she stoked outrage after attending an anti-Israel, terrorist-connected conference in Michigan.

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