Arab and Muslim voters continue pressure on Biden at election polls
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both secured enough state election wins after Tuesday’s elections in Georgia and Washington State to qualify for their party nominations for the November General Election. #AbandonBiden activists said the trend against Biden’s polices in Gaza continued in Georgia and Washington State following trends set in Minnesota, Michigan and other states threatening to derail his re-election chances
By Ray Hanania
Although a significant number of Arab and Muslim voters turned their backs on President Joe Biden’s re-election bid in Georgia and Washington State elections on Tuesday, the president succeeded in winning enough state delegates to secure his party’s nomination.
Former President Donald Trump also won enough state delegates Tuesday to officially win his party’s nomination. Both Biden and Trump will continue to run in primary elections in remaining 25 states and several territories before seeking formal confirmation at their party conventions this summer.
But despite the wins, Arab and Muslim activists with the #AbandonBiden campaign said that community voter trends against Biden that began in “Swing States” Minnesota, Michigan and North Carolina in the past several weeks continued strong in Tuesday’s elections in Georgia and in Washington State.
“It seems like Biden is winning but when you look at the numbers he is losing big time. We see a significant protest vote. Biden is getting a resounding rejection nationally that will definitely impact his election prospects in November,” Farah Khan, a co-founder of the #AbandonBiden movement which began in Minnesota and expanded into Michigan, told Arab News.
“Biden is not going anywhere after what he has done, he can’t redeem himself now. Come November it is going to be really hard for him. We know he is scared and feeling the pressure because he keeps making promises on Gaza and making trips to Michigan without telling the public where he plans to be, like he is dodging the protesters. He knows the protestors will find him.”
With nearly 98 percent of votes counted in Georgia, Biden received 95.19 percent or 274,820 votes while two minor challengers won 4.81 percent or 13,896. Many Arab, Muslim and Gaza protestors were encouraged to vote “blank ballots” although the state election board would not confirm the total number.
Activists in the Listen to Georgia Coalition of local faith leaders and political organizations and activists said at least 6,455 Georgia voters submitted blank ballots in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary in response to their protest calls.
The total “blank ballots” returned combined with the known opposition votes put the anti-Biden protest at well over the 11,779 votes Biden received in Georgia in 2020 to defeat Trump.
Biden led Trump significantly in Washington State, which is a Democratic Party stronghold, where 7.5 percent or 48,619 voters chose to vote “uncommitted” rather than vote for Biden. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Washington State by 785,000 votes.
“Clearly, Georgia had a bit more of an uphill battle than in North Carolina which had a ‘No preference’ option to affirmatively select. Georgia was decided by less than 12,000 in 2020, so even a tiny sliver of disillusioned voters would be extremely problematic for Biden,” Pooyan Ordoubadi, co-chair of the North Carolina #AbandonBiden coalition, told Arab News.
“Over three-quarters of Democratic voters are demanding a ceasefire. The large numbers of protest votes show how many voters, across all ages and demographics are opposed to the US funded genocide in Gaza. Biden cannot win without us. We need to ask why, if the Democrats believe that a Trump presidency would mean the end of democracy, they are willing to risk it all to support a fascist government in Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
Despite Biden and Trump winning their party nominations, primary elections will continue in several states with large Arab and Muslim voter populations including in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio on March 19, Wisconsin on April 2, Maryland and West Virginia on May 14, and New Jersey on June 4.
Khan said the #AbandonBiden trend is expected to continue and grow.
“Muslim and Arab voters are taking their allies like the Black and Brown and larger progressive community with them in uniting behind a message to reject genocide,” Khan said.
“We’re leading all these coalitions to come together to vote out Joe Biden and the proof is already being seen around the country with historic levels of votes rejecting Biden, not just from Arab and Muslim communities, but even non-Arab and Muslim communities. Reports reference that the Biden campaign is worried, and they should be.”
Biden has not addressed questions or references to the #AbandonBiden campaign over his pro-Israel policies. But at a rally Tuesday in Atlanta during the voting Tuesday, a protestor in the audience yelled, “What are you going to do, Genocide Joe? Tens of thousands of Palestinians …”
The protestors was interrupted by supporters who chanted “four more years” in response.
But, Biden responded, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. … Look, thank you. Look, I don’t resent — I don’t resent — I don’t resent his passion. There’s a lot of Palestinians who are being unfairly victimized.”
Khan responded, “If Biden is not worried by now, then he is a bigger fool that we thought he is. These numbers are telling you a pretty loud story about the challenges he faces. The movement is just getting started. Once the primaries wrap up, we are going to be working very hard to have the momentum picking up. Michigan and Georgia are very tough battle grounds for him.”
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by winning 306 Electoral Votes. If Biden loses three swing states in November, like Michigan, North Carolina and Minnesota which have 41 total electoral votes, the president risks failing to achieving 270 Electoral College Votes required to become president.
The #AbandonBiden activists said their protest against Biden is not an expression of support for Trump, although Trump or another third party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could benefit from the protest movement withholding votes from Biden.
Khan said the various #AbandonBiden coalitions are expected to gather after the Democrat and Republican conventions to vet alternative candidates to endorse, although details have not yet been finalized.
If no candidate wins the minimum of 270 ECV in the November 5 presidential election, then the selection of a president could go to the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the U.S. Constitution.
Biden’s Georgia Deputy Campaign director Quentin Fulks did not respond to a request for comment.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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