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In defeat, some Harris supporters scapegoat Arab, Muslim voters for Trump win.
As the United States reacts to the results of the 5 November election, some supporters of the Democratic Party have turned their anger on Arab and Muslim voters for opposing Vice President Kamala Harris over her support for Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.
This is despite polling showing that president-elect Donald Trump outperformed his Democratic rival across many sectors, currently leading in the popular vote by some 4.5 million ballots.
Among the key statistics that have emerged, an NBC News exit poll conducted with several other news outlets found that 57 percent of White Americans voted for Trump.
According to a poll by Edison Research, Trump increased his support from 2020 among Hispanic voters by 14 percentage points, winning 46 percent of votes in that demographic.
Among Muslim voters, less than half voted for Harris, according to an exit poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, where over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, was a key issue, leading many long-time Democrats to abstain, back Trump or choose third party candidates.
In the battleground state of Michigan, home to the cities with the highest Arab-American populations, a clear backlash against Harris was noted.
Dearborn  — a city whose population is 55 percent Arab  — voted by more than 42 percent for Trump, while 36 percent chose Harris, Voice of America reported. In the last presidential election, nearly 70 percent of the Arab-majority city voted for Joe Biden.
While the numbers show that Harris failed to secure broad appeal across US society, some have chosen to scapegoat Arab and Muslim voters for the defeat.
Several anonymous accounts supportive of Harris made bigoted statements, with one expressing hope that Trump will turn Gaza into a “parking lot”.
“When Gaza is blown off the map they’ll have their Trump Vote as thanks,” said one X user.
However in response, many highlighted that with the support and military aid of the Biden-Harris administration, most of Gaza has been flattened by the Israel, which is accused of carrying out a genocide.
Other Harris supporters took jabs at those who decided to back third party candidates, particularly the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
“Well to the non-voters & 3rd party voters in Michigan. Particularly in the Arabic communities. You gave Trump & Netanyahu the green light to destroy Palestine & screwed over democracy in the United States. But principles right?” wrote one X user.
Stein won 22 percent of the vote in Arab-majority Dearborn, but only secured 0.4 percent of the national vote. Many observers have highlighted that Harris would still have failed to secure the presidency due to her performance across the key swing states.
“Even if all Green Party voters had voted for Harris, Trump would still have won in each battleground state,” wrote one X user.
Hitting back at the accusations, many in the anti-Harris camp highlighted how the Democratic candidate had made a number of missteps regarding Arab and Muslim communities.
“As it stands, Harris is on track to lose Michigan by about 80,000 votes. There are 200,000 Muslim voters in that state. I really hope sending Ritchie Torres and Bill Clinton to these communities to berate and antagonize them was worth it,” wrote one X user, referring to the Harris campaign’s deployment of vocally pro-Israel lawmaker Torres and former president Clinton to Michigan.
In the runup to the election, Clinton gave a speech in Michigan in which he appeared to justify Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, while also citing the Bible as evidence of Israel’s claim over historical Palestine.
“They wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable. Well, I got news for them. They were there first before there was—their faith existed,” Clinton said. “They were there in the time of King David in the southernmost tribes had Judea and Samaria,” he added, using the biblical names often used by pro-settlement Zionists for the occupied West Bank.
Social media users also highlighted how the Harris campaign declined requests from Arab-Americans to speak at campaign rallies, while Trump — despite his history of anti-Muslim rhetoric — platformed and sought endorsements from Arabs and Muslims.