Biden at risk of losing Michigan voting bloc in 2024 due to response to war in Israel

The war between Hamas and Israel is putting President Joe Biden in the hot seat for his support of the Jewish state, a move that could cost Biden the support of some Michigan Democrats in 2024.

Michigan holds one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the United States, with the voting bloc choosing Biden overwhelming and helping secure his win in the swing state in the 2020 election. An exit poll from the Associated Press found that 64% of Muslims voted for Biden in 2020 compared to the 35% that voted for former President Donald Trump.

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Now, that support could be waning ahead of 2024 — former Biden adviser Ahmad Ramadan and other Michigan Democratic leaders said they are hearing frustration with Biden and threats that they may not vote for him again.

Ramadan told NBC News that the main takeaway from a series of roundtables he’s had with Muslim community leaders is that “people are very disappointed” and they “will not forget what President Biden did and why he lied to them.”

“President Biden won with historic numbers in 2020. And I was proud to represent that, but the last two weeks have really shifted things,” Ramadan said. “I’ve also been getting calls from people saying, ‘I have blood on my hands because I got people out to support him during that campaign.’”

Democrats have held a tight grip on Muslim American support as the population continues to grow.

The Biden administration has declared “unconditional” support for Israel but has also defended the Palestinian people, distinguishing them from Hamas, who carried out a terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7. Still, some Muslim leaders say that Biden and the Democratic Party could lose Muslim support if he does not do more to combat Islamophobia or address the pain of Palestinians.

“Joe Biden has single-handedly alienated almost every Arab-American and Muslim American voter in Michigan,” Democratic state Rep. Alabas Farhat told NBC News. Her district includes Dearborn, which is home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab American communities in the country.

Farhat said constituents and neighbors in his district have families trapped in Gaza, some of whom are American citizens. Those constituents feel abandoned by the U.S. government for not doing more to help get them out and send humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, as well as calling for a ceasefire, Farhat said.

“The Biden administration and Democrats as a whole are going to have to do a lot of work to rebuild some level of trust with my community,” he said. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

Muslim leaders are floating a plan to mobilize voters for next year but encouraging them to leave the top of the ticket blank in protest, people close to the discussions told NBC News.

“That’s the plan right now,” Farhat said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people that remember when you won Michigan years ago by a razor-thin margin, when you won Georgia with a razor-thin margin, when you won Arizona by a razor-thin margin — do not be surprised if there are consequences for your actions.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has been the most vocal “Squad” Democrat in calling for the end to the “occupation” of Israel and a ceasefire, which has been met with extreme backlash from other Democrats and most Republicans.

“President Biden, not all of America is with you on this one, and you need to wake up and understand that,” Tlaib said at a rally calling for a cease-fire on Wednesday. “We will remember this.”

The White House and Biden’s campaign said they are working to address issues of Islamophobia and violence against Palestinians, particularly after a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Plainfield, Illinois, was killed in an alleged hate crime.

“The President and this administration have been unequivocal: there is no place for Islamophobia, xenophobia, or any of the vile racism we have seen in recent weeks,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said, adding that “MAGA” Republicans are continuing to run on an “openly Islamophobic platform.

“President Biden continues to work closely and proudly with leaders in the Muslim and Palestinian communities in America, to listen to them, stand up for them, and fight back against hate,” Moussa continued.

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Some Muslim leaders said similar comments made by the president in his Oval Office address on Thursday, where he said he was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life,” were not enough.

“I believe he made a good case for what he believes in, but in no way did he come close to addressing the human disaster,” Dr. Mahmoud Hadidi, the chairman of the Michigan Muslim Community Council, told NBC News. “There’s a lot more that President Biden, who had a lot of support from the community here, could have said or done to show concern for the civilians trapped in this unfortunate situation” in Gaza.