Joe McConnell
Fatima reserved her judgment on Kamala Harris as she sat on a bench in a small plaza in downtown Dearborn, a city with a large Arab-American community in Michigan’s political battleground.
The 24-year-old, who declined to give her last name, voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but has been shocked by the high number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza and recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and is unsure whether she will support Democrats in November’s presidential election.
Fatima said Harris could “probably” be better than Biden, who many in Dearborn see as too supportive of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, but it would depend on what happens in the coming weeks. “If we can give hope or relief to the Palestinians, that’s the only reason I would vote for her,” she said.
Since launching her campaign for the White House against Donald Trump on July 21, following Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Harris has been able to rally much of the Democratic base that will be key to her victory in the presidential election, from young voters to women and people of color.
But those who see the war in Gaza as the central theme of the election campaign (and many are concentrated in southeastern Michigan, where distrust of the Democratic Party is now deep-seated) are wary of the party’s new candidate.
“The majority of our community leans toward the Democratic Party, but most of them feel like they don’t want to vote,” said Abir, an older woman outside a local Dearborn supermarket who regrets voting for Biden in 2020 and “has no idea” what she’ll do in November.
“I just wanted to stand aside and watch, unless [Harris] makes his position clear on the issue, which is that this has to stop,” he said.
While Harris has not advocated any change from Biden’s policy toward Israel, she has sought to distance herself from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister. She did not attend his joint address to Congress in Washington last month and met with him separately from Biden. AVscekerward, she said her commitment to Israel’s security was “unwavering,” but that she would not “remain silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering.
Jim Zogby, founder of the advocacy group Arab American Institute, said Harris has made more of an effort to “communicate” with the Arab community since the conflict began. He predicted she will “win back a lot of the people who were hesitant or opposed to the administration,” but added that she “has to stand up” for her position.
Calibrating her message on the Middle East will likely be the Harris campaign’s biggest foreign policy challenge. AVsceker arriving at a Detroit airport for a large campaign rally Wednesday, Harris had what aides described as a “brief engagement” with activists who had led more than 100,000 people in the state to vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary rather than for Biden earlier this year in a backlash against the White House.
Layla Elabed, one of the movement’s leaders, became emotional when she told Harris that they wanted to support her, but that they needed a policy in Gaza that could “save lives right now,” including an arms embargo on Israel.
But while activists walked away with the impression that Harris was open to discussing ending arms transfers to Israel, Phil Gordon, her national security adviser, disabused them on Thursday morning.
He wrote in X: “He will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself from Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist groups. He does not support an arms embargo against Israel. He will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.”
Additionally, during the Detroit rally, Harris was repeatedly interrupted by protesters chanting “Kamala Kamala, you can’t hide, we’re not voting for genocide.”
She initially responded with, “I’m here because we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice matters.” But then she told them, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say so. If not, I’ll do the talking.” The vast majority of the crowd applauded her.
AVsceker the event, protester Zainab Hakim, 21, said Harris had been “so disrespectful.” “I hear this rhetoric all the time: ‘You’re Brown, you’re Muslim, you’re Palestinian, you think your life will be better under Trump,’” she said.
“[But] For my Palestinian friends, if their relatives and their people are being massacred under Biden and maybe under Kamala, it is not good for them,” he added.
On Friday in Arizona, aVsceker being mocked again, Harris said: “I’ve been clear. Now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done. Now is the time.”
The mathematical reality is that any defection from the traditional Democratic base could help Trump and make a difference in swing states, including Michigan.
But for most voters, Gaza isn’t the only issue at stake in the election. If Harris performs strongly enough among other Democratic, independent, and swing voters, she could afford some losses from the Middle East conflict. Projecting toughness against protesters could help her fend off critics on the right who accuse her of being too liberal.
What happens diplomatically in the Middle East could also be important to his prospects of defeating Trump. Washington, along with Egypt and Qatar, is trying to help broker a ceasefire agreement that would halt hostilities between Israel and Hamas and lead to the release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics said, “I think he’s trying to make critics of the administration’s policy on Israel and Gaza feel heard, but he also doesn’t seem inclined to push for what some activists want, which is an embargo on U.S. arms sales to Israel.”
“Maybe the simple fact that she’s not Biden will make at least some of these Biden critics more receptive to her,” he added.
However, Mahde Kazan, who runs an ice cream shop in Dearborn, is undecided. A former Trump voter who once voted for Barack Obama, he is leaning Republican again but also sees Harris as “fit for the job” of president. “I have to watch the debates and see what makes the most sense,” he said.
And Harris’s silence on the Middle East and foreign policy more generally during the campaign leaves a question mark for some in Dearborn.
“We don’t know anything about her,” said Dow, a 72-year-old engineering professor who hasn’t decided who he’ll vote for. “What will she think about Gaza? What will she think about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what will she think about the relationship with China and the whole economic situation? She needs to tell the public.”
But Fatima is clear: while she isn’t sure about Harris, she would never vote for Trump. “I know he’s against the ceasefire, and I know hate crimes would be worse,” she said.
