Dearborn’s anti-Biden activists won’t rubber-stamp president’s Harris endorsement
Activists in the Muslim community in Dearborn, Michigan, are relieved that President Biden has dropped out of the race but won't automatically back Vice President Harris.
Activists in Dearborn, Michigan, who led the resistance against President Biden in response to his support for Israel won't so easily come back to the Democratic Party now that he has dropped out of the race.
"There is not an automatic endorsement by the community of Harris just because Biden stepped down," Samraa Luqman, who has served as co-chair for the Abandon Biden campaign, said of her personal feelings on the state of the race. "She was part of the Biden administration, so she’s going to be associated with all of his policies and all of his rhetoric. She might come with a $100 million war chest, but she comes with his baggage as well."
Luqman’s comments come after Biden announced on social media Sunday that he was dropping out of the 2024 race, a decision that was made after weeks of increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to pass the torch amid fears over his physical and mental ability to continue the campaign.
Such a decision was cause for celebration in Dearborn, Luqman said, noting that she believes Biden’s unpopularity among members of her community played a role in the president’s decision.
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Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit that has the highest per capita Muslim population in the country, became the center of the resistance to Biden during Michigan’s primary in March, with more than 100,000 voters marking "uncommitted" on their ballots instead of supporting the president’s re-election bid. The vast majority of those who turned on Biden in March were longtime Democrats who had voted for the president in 2020, but his handling of the conflict in Gaza had caused many in Dearborn to reach their breaking point.
"This is absolutely phenomenal and historical," Luqman said of Biden’s decision to drop out. "And I want it to absolutely be known and give credit where credit is due. It is not due to the fact that Biden had a bad performance in the debate… it is due to his bad polling numbers."
Biden’s outlook in the polls had continued to deteriorate over July, with most national polls showing the president trailing former President Trump. Worse for Biden, most polls also showed him behind in almost every important swing state, including Michigan.
A new Detroit Free Press poll released just hours before Biden announced his decision showed the president trailing Trump by seven points in the crucial swing state of Michigan, a devastating deficit in an almost must-win state for Democrats.
Luqman credits her community for contributing to that deficit, making the path to victory for Biden too difficult to remain in the race.
But Luqman made clear that people in the community won’t easily run back to Democrats, with many planning to support a third-party candidate or even Trump in November instead of Biden’s handpicked successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.
"You’re hearing a lot of people who are so upset and so burned by Biden, that there is a rejection of the Democratic Party altogether, who are still saying, even if it were Harris, we will not vote for the Democratic nominee," Luqman said, adding that some members of the community may for vote Green Party candidate Jill Stein or "go with a Republican out of spite."
"We saw this kind of shift… right after the Iraq War 20 years ago, where the entire Arab Muslim community shifted to the Democratic Party and stayed that way for two decades now," Luqman added. "It looks like that pendulum is swinging again toward the Republican side now."
Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, echoed a similar sentiment, saying that for the Muslim community in Dearborn and elsewhere, Biden’s decision to step down was a welcome "relief."
Nevertheless, Ayoub made clear that the issue just wasn’t with "Biden himself," but the administration's policy on the Middle East and around the globe.
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"These are serious issues for the Arab community and how different is Harris going to be on that? What can she bring to the tale that’s different?" Ayoub asked.
Ayoub made clear that many in the community will listen to what Harris has to say but that earning their support will not be automatic, noting that both the Stein and Trump campaigns have done good outreach to local voters.
"It opens the door wide open for Democrats to win back many of the ones that Biden has lost," Ayoub said, while noting that many will still support Stein or even Trump.
"His outreach now is much better, much different than it was in 2016 and 2020," Ayoub said of Trump.
Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, told Fox News Digital that while it is unlikely many of the activists who turned on Biden will back Harris, it is also unlikely the Dearborn and Muslim community will see a major candidate that fits the profile they are demanding.
"I think most of the Arab and Muslim leadership and Islamist activists in Dearborn and in Michigan have constantly reiterated that Harris is no better than Biden and that they see no difference between them. Early comments indicate that she would have to be more anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, including in her VP pick, for them to reconsider their stance," Stalinsky said. "In their celebrations of Biden’s announcement over the past day, they take credit for his retirement. They also do not realize that average Americans are much more pro-Israel than their own vocal groups of supporters in a handful of states are. Furthermore, they mistakenly believe that everyone who did not vote for Biden in the primary was rejecting him because he was pro-Israel."
Meanwhile, frustration with the Democratic Party’s process for replacing Biden on the ticket has already started for many in the Muslim community, Ayoub noted, arguing that allowing the president to handpick his replacement is "not democratic."
"You knew Biden was sick, he went through a whole primary process, and then told him to step aside and put your own candidate," Ayoub said. "There’s anger there that this is happening… and I think it’s important to point out that this is not a great candidate. This is not a democratically elected nominee for the Democratic Party."