'Too late?' Columnist warns numbers show 'fracture' between Harris and 'key' constituency

Support for Donald Trump among Muslim and Arab Americans has risen, according to recent polls, but that may have more to do with Vice President Kamala Harris’ neglect of the crucial voting bloc than anything else, a Washington Post columnist argued.

“Something has changed,” Shadi Hamid wrote in a column published Tuesday, where he described the general mood of Arabs and Muslims nationwide as the Nov. 5 election draws nearer as “dark and despairing.”

“They see how the Democratic Party has ignored the preferences of its own members, 77 percent of whom believe the United States should not send weapons to Israel,” according to Hamid, an author and research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary.

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In his column Tuesday, the Washington Post columnist zeroed in on what he sees as a “fracture between Muslims and Arab Americans and the Democratic Party,” adding it has “reached a breaking point.”

“If recent surveys are any indication, most will not be voting for Kamala Harris, suggesting a stark shift just years after they had become a key Democratic Party constituency during the Trump years,” Hamid wrote.

He noted that just about 30% of Muslim voters said in a survey they plan to support Harris, a dismal number which he added leaves the Democratic nominee virtually tied with Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

“Meanwhile, 42 percent of Arab Americans intend to vote for the Democratic nominee. These figures are a far cry from the large majorities that voted for Joe Biden in 2020,” he wrote.

Hamid attributes the shift in mood among the group to anger “about American complicity in Israel’s war” and concluded his column by writing that: “The devastation of Gaza has confirmed for many Arabs and Muslims what they may have only previously suspected: They are not viewed as equal or equally deserving of dignity.”

But, he added, despite the “weakening enthusiasm” for Harris’ campaign among the voting bloc, "until Election Day, it’s never too late. The Harris campaign needs a wake-up call.”