Between Detroit, Dearborn, and other cities in Michigan, approximately 300,000 Americans of various Arab origins live. With the outbreak of war in Gaza, everyone began looking for a candidate to stop it.

Ali, a university student of Yemeni origin who is voting for the first time in the US presidential elections, is one of them. He says, "Any American president in general has a relationship with Israel, but in the end, we are immigrants here. We are trying to fix the situation as much as possible. We have no power, and as I said, we choose what is best for us as an Arab community, but even if no one votes, that will not matter. A president will be elected either." Harris or Trump, and we choose the person who will try to fix the situation of Arabs and Muslims here.”

The best option

Arab American voters in Dearborn represent half of those registered to vote in the general elections, which they describe as historic and decisive as well.

A professor of Arab American and Middle Eastern studies, Hani Bawardi, says that the indecisiveness of voters of Arab descent to choose their preferred presidential candidate is a general problem for all Arabs in the United States, not just in Michigan.

Bawardi adds, “There is certainly a dilemma facing Arab voters and their friends in the United States in general, and not just Michigan.”

Regarding the tendency of voters to vote for candidates other than Harris and Trump, similar to the Green Party candidate, the spokesman explains, “I do not think that voting for Jill Stein is a waste of their votes, and to clarify this point we must expand the conversation to include the responsibility of Americans in general, why only a Democratic Party and a Republican Party.” ?".

From Democrats to Republicans

After years of Arab Americans tending to vote Democratic, many said that this year's events changed their minds and pushed them to move toward Republicans.

Bilal Al-Zuhairi, an Islamic preacher who participated in Donald Trump’s meetings, says that the Republican candidate and former president “was able to prove to us through actions and not just words that he cares about our concerns, and is ready to listen to our demands and strive to achieve them.”

He added, "This is the difference. The other party does not want to hear from us. The other party did not invite us to a meeting. It does not want to listen to our concerns. It does not want to listen to our demands."

In the Democratic primary elections, the “Uncommitted” campaign was able to collect the votes of 100,000 voters in the swing state of Michigan, which has 15 electoral votes.

Americans of Arab descent are awaiting the results of the US elections, carrying many messages for the two main parties, the Democratic and Republican, most important of which is the necessity of finding fair solutions to the issues of the Middle East.