Biden at risk of losing vital voting bloc in swing state that helped him beat Trump

President Joe Biden is losing Arab American voters in Michigan — a pivotal swing state that will play an indispensable role in shaping the outcome of the 2024 election.

In the first national poll of Arab Americans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly one month ago, only 17% plan to vote for Biden next year — a drastic drop from 59% in 2020, per the Arab American Institute.

BARACK OBAMA HAS BEEN WORKING FOR MONTHS TO SHAPE THE WHITE HOUSE’S AI APPROACH

The survey indicated the first time in 26 years that a majority of Arab American voters did not prefer the Democratic Party.

Michigan is home to around 300,000 Arab Americans of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry who helped Biden secure the state over former President Donald Trump in 2020 after Hillary Clinton’s narrow loss in 2016.

The state was considered a reliable blue wall of the industrial upper Midwest for Democrats, flipping back to Biden in an even wider margin than Trump’s defeat of Clinton.

The pressure for Biden is particularly on in Dearborn, located in the Detroit metropolitan area, which has the fastest-growing Arab American population in the nation.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) have both criticized the Biden administration’s response to the war in Gaza.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Both officials escalated criticisms following an attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of Palestinians, which the Israeli government and U.S. intelligence said was caused by a misfired rocket by the militant group Islamic Jihad. Hamas said it was an Israeli air raid that killed more than 500 Palestinians.

“Still, nothing could have prepared us for the complete erasure of our voices and radio silence from those whom we elected to protect and represent us,” Hammoud said in a statement on X following the attack. “Our family members trapped in Gaza have been ignored, our calls for a ceasefire drowned out by the drums of war and racist media coverage that dismisses the massacre of entire Palestinian families as collateral damage.”