Harris got most US Jewish votes, lagged behind in Arab-American heartland

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won a greater share of the Jewish American vote than the Muslim American vote, according to an AP exit poll following Republican candidate Donald Trump’s election victory. 

Exit polls showed that Harris secured 67% of the Jewish vote, compared to Trump’s 31%.

Among Muslim Americans, Harris received 61% of the votes, with Trump close behind at 30%. 

In 2020, Joe Biden garnered 69% of the Jewish American vote, while Trump received 31%. Biden also held 63% of the Muslim American vote, compared to 25% for Trump. 

In Dearborn, Michigan—home to one of the largest Arab populations in the US and a crucial swing city in a key battleground state—Trump won 45% of the vote, though the final count is pending. 

 Additionally, Green Party leader Jill Stein attracted 15% of former Harris supporters. 

The Biden administration’s near-unqualified support for Israel's brutal war on Gaza influenced the presidential race outcome. 

 Among voters opposed to continued US support for Israel, 55% backed Harris, while 40% sided with Trump.  

This election marks a sharp shift in Dearborn, where Democrats won 88% of the vote for Biden in 2020. 

Maysa Hamdan, a 52-year-old Palestinian-American resident of Dearborn who voted for Jill Stein, told The New Arab that Kamala Harris's failure to distance herself from President Joe Biden's pro-Israel policies had led to her defeat.

“It was Kamala’s administration that failed. She could’ve done better, she could’ve distanced herself from Biden and said she would do things differently, but she didn’t. And Jill Stein did. Even Trump did, even though he lied. In one rally he’d say I’m for the Israelis and in another he’d say I’m for the Arabs.” 

Historically, Arab-American voters in Michigan have favoured Democratic candidates in recent elections, but the Democrats' support for Israel as it waged brutal wars on Gaza and Lebanon may have weakened that support. 

The shift among Michigan’s Arab-Americans and other voters critical of Harris’s Middle East stance may have been pivotal. 

Earlier this year, around 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the presidential primary as a protest against the Gaza conflict, rather than supporting Biden. 

Harris, although appearing to show more sensitivity toward Palestinian and Lebanese civilians than Biden, has remained aligned with his strong support for Israel, promising to continue military aid.  

This led to significant defections to Green party candidate Jill Stein or even Trump. 

The Abandon Harris campaign, which organised protests against the Democratic candidate, officially endorsed Stein, highlighting the anger and dissatisfaction many Arab and Muslim voters felt with both major US parties over their pro-Israel policies. 

Stein gained traction among Arab and Muslim communities amid the Gaza and Lebanon wars, as previous polls indicated. 

Meanwhile, in the final days of the campaign, Trump actively sought to attract Arab and Muslim voters despite his history of anti-Arab and Islamophobic rhetoric. 

Despite pledges to reinstate the controversial 'travel ban' on Muslim-majority countries and claims that Harris "wants to deposit thousands of jihadist sympathisers in Minnesota" while asserting Democrats aim to “turn the Midwest into the Middle East,” some Arab and Muslim voters have overlooked Trump’s remarks.  

They argue that Muslim communities thrived during his presidential term despite his bigoted comments and policies.

A Yemeni American woman told The New Arab that, while Trump "has his cons," he offered a preferable choice over Harris due to economic policies , noting that she and her family had supported Trump since 2020. 

Early on Wednesday, Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes required and was declared the election winner by major US media organisations.  

Trump secured critical battleground states, including Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—three of which voted Democratic in the previous election—giving him 276 electoral college votes.  

Harris stands at 219 electoral college votes.