Outside a busy coffee shop in Dearborn, Michigan, just days before the U.S. Presidential election, Farah Khan is chasing down anyone she sees and asking them one pivotal question: “Did you vote?”
“I don’t think I’m gonna vote this year. I don’t like both sides,” says one young man.
She pushes a flier into his hand with images of children in Gaza on the top. In bold red text are the words: “Do not vote Trump. Do not vote Harris. Do not vote genocide.”
Written in green on the bottom with pictures of smiling candidates are the words “Vote Jill Stein.”
Khan is an organizer with Abandon Harris, a Muslim-led group that is seeking to “punish” the Democratic Party for their policies in regards to Israel and Gaza by encouraging voters in swing states to vote for third party candidate Jill Stein.
And in the final days leading up to the election, Abandon Harris is pouring all their energy into Michigan, where many voters are planning not to vote for the Democratic party in response to policies in Gaza under Biden.
“We will definitely be the decider one way or the other in this election here in Michigan,” said Hassan Abdel Salam, the founder of Abandon Harris. He’s hoping to get a large number of the state’s more than 200,000 Arab voters to vote for Stein.
Michigan is a crucial battleground state in a neck in neck election. That means the state could go either way: Republican or Democrat.
Meet the Muslim-led group campaigning against Kamala Harris in Michigan
Back in 2016, Trump won Michigan by 10,000 votes. In 2020, Biden won by 154,000 votes, partly because of overwhelming support from Arab American and Muslim voters.
But war in Gaza and now in Lebanon have deeply affected this community, and these same voters are angry with the U.S.'s policies overseas. They say Israel’s actions have amounted to “genocide” in Gaza, and they see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as complicit and equally responsible for those policies for providing military funds to Israel.
Israel has denied all allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza and the United States has said there is "no evidence" of genocide in Gaza.
“There are people in the community here who can tell you the depth of the impact of the war by the number of family members who have been killed. Some are actually counting this in the double digits,” said Saeed Khan, professor of Near Eastern studies at Wayne State University. According to Khan, the war has created a growing sense of anger and helplessness within members of the Arab community here, and it’s impacting how they’ll vote.
The goal for Abandon Harris and their supporters is not for Jill Stein to win the election. What they’re seeking is for Harris to lose, and with that loss, for both parties to come to a reckoning on foreign policy when it comes to Palestine.
Abandon Harris: The movement seeking to "punish" Democrats for U.S. Gaza policy
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And that message is landing with a number of disenchanted voters. According to a poll conducted by the Council on American Islamic Relations, 40% of Muslim Americans in Michigan back Stein.
Jenna Mahmoud, 20, is a first time voter and a student at Wayne State University. Her parents voted for Biden in 2020, but after this past year, she says she won’t be voting Democrat.
“A lot of Arabs in Dearborn voted for Biden. And what do we get? We get promised this and that, and we got a genocide. We got this continuous support of mass murder of children, women, and elders.”
She’ll be casting a vote for Jill Stein, and she says all her friends will be as well.
“I don't know anyone who is voting for Harris. I don’t know anyone who is voting for Trump,” said Mahmoud. “I'm done pertaining to a system that doesn't serve people like me. I care that my vote is a morally conscious vote.”
Sukkar and Mahmoud chat excitedly at Wayne State University
Mahmoud said she’d come across Stein at events throughout the community. “She had a protest right here like two months ago. She's always on the ground, willing to talk to people.”
Jenna Sukkar, 20, another student at Wayne State University, first came across Stein’s campaign on Instagram.
“This girl is the girlboss. She's a little petite woman and she has such a powerful voice. She genuinely is a caring person that cares about the Palestinian cause,” said Sukkar, who is also a first time voter and plans on voting for Stein this year.
The Democratic Party has recognized that Stein could pose a threat to their campaign. Democratic organizers have cautioned people against voting for a third party and ran an ad that targeted Jill Stein in swing states including Michigan, warning voters that, “A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Trump.”
Source: The Democratic Party
Sukkar and Mahmoud disagree.
“I feel like it's very clear when we were writing on the ballot, filling out the bubbles, that it's going to be going to Jill Stein,” said Sukkar.
In response to that same reasoning, Abandon Harris leader Hassan Abdel Salam emphasized, “A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Jill Stein.”
He said that while he’s aware pulling voters away from Harris would inevitably lead to a Trump presidency, it’s a consequence he’s willing to face if it means creating political power for future elections.
However, despite growing support for the Green Party in Michigan, some voters remain wary.
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“I personally don't really feel like I could vote third party because I don't really feel Jill Stein has really sat down with our community and communicated with our community directly,” said Jenin Yaseen, a Palestinian American artist living in Dearborn. “She's had some rallies, but has she done anything beyond that to interact with us?”
Jenin Yaseen poses in her apartment surrounded by her artwork.
Yaseen has described this past year as “excruciating.” As the death toll in Gaza has continued to rise, protests in the state have begun including vigils to remember those killed overseas.
For Yaseen, her sense of disillusionment when it came to voting grew when Lebanon was invaded in October.
“We have a lot of folks coming in saying Michigan is a swing state, we get to decide who the next president is. If we had power, this genocide would have ended earlier on. This genocide wouldn't have expanded to the Lebanese community. I felt completely humiliated.”
She will not be voting for any presidential candidate, and instead plans to write “Free Palestine” or “Hind Rajab” in reference to a five year old girl killed in Gaza on the presidential ballot.
There have also been a number of leaders in the Arab American community in Michigan who have endorsed Trump, including the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, the first U.S. city to ever elect a Muslim majority city council.
At a rally in Michigan on October 26, Trump was joined on stage by multiple imams.
“We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace – he promises peace, not war,” said Imam Belal Alzuhairi of The Great Mosque in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Prior to 9/11, there was a subsection of Muslim voters that tended to vote for the Republican Party in very large numbers, according to Saeed Khan.
It’s yet to be seen, however, if U.S. policies overseas under Biden will result in a greater shift of Muslim Americans to the Republican party.
Despite a large amount of fervor related to the election, community members say the fight doesn’t end there.
“My plans right now is to protest the genocide. And my plans after November 5th is to continue to protest against the genocide,” said Yaseen.
Asking people in Michigan if not voting for Harris to protest against Gaza policy is like voting for Trump