American Muslim leaders gathered in Dearborn, Michigan. to start coordinating an effort in swing states to defeat Joe Biden and deny him a second term.
If they're serious and are well-funded, Biden could be in a heap of trouble.
In 2020, about 1.1 million Muslims turned out to vote. While their numbers are small, it's where they vote that made a difference in 2020. Biden won Georgia by 12,000 votes while 61,000 Muslims went to the polls. In Pennsylvania, Biden won by 81,000 votes as 125,000 Muslims voted.
Not all Muslims voted for Biden, but about 70% did. In states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, Muslims not voting for him in 2024 could cost Joe Biden the election.
So this effort by Muslim leaders angry at Biden for his pro-Israel stance in the war is something that Biden can't ignore and that Democrats need to address.
An analysis by Emgage, a Muslim-American civic group, "found that 71 percent of registered Muslim voters in the U.S. went to the polls that year — an uptick of 2 percentage points compared to 2016, and 4 points higher than the nationwide turnout level in 2020," according to Politico.
The report demonstrates the impact of Muslim Americans’ efforts in recent years to flex their political muscle. Emgage’s political action committee, which bills itself as the largest Muslim American PAC in the nation, endorsed Biden in the 2020 general election and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary. Emgage also hosted a Democratic presidential primary forum that year.
The group described its outreach to Muslim Americans as including “making 1.8 million calls, sending over 3.6 million text messages and over 400,000 mailers, knocking on over 20,000 doors, holding over 50 organizing training sessions, and activating 672 volunteers nationwide.” It also held voter registration drives at mosques, ran ads in community newspapers, and joined a get-out-the-vote rally for Muslims in Philadelphia.
Mohamed Gula, national organizing director at Emgage, said the increase in voter participation in 2020 was “all about the conversations that were being had — it’s the belief that we are a part of the American fabric.”
The warnings aren't just coming from the usual suspects on the left. The concerns are being expressed by "Democratic elected officials, nonpartisan community leaders, Muslim get-out-the-vote groups and even some of Biden’s biggest Arab American validators," according to NBC News.
“It literally may dissuade enough voters to sit back in the next election and watch Donald Trump control the presidency, watch the Republicans control the Congress and also know that conservatives will have control of the Supreme Court,” said Wa’el Alzayat, the CEO of Emgage.
That may be an exaggeration. Muslims are numerous and wield influence in an arc from Ohio through Michigan and Pennsylvania, with pockets of Muslim influence scattered throughout the Northeast, where they affect local races but have little impact statewide.
But in a close presidential election, Trump being able to win Michigan and Pennsylvania would just about be the ballgame for him and doom Biden to a one-term presidency.
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