Kamala Harris Gets Warning From Critical Swing State Activist

Michael Moore, a Michigan-based filmmaker and political activist, is warning Vice President Kamala Harris that her message to Arab Americans in the swing state is not getting through to the key voting group.
Asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta on Friday if the Harris campaign’s approach to the war in Gaza—arguing that it would be worse under former President Donald Trump—is resonating with Michigan’s Arab community, Moore responded, “No, I don’t really this it is.”
“The people who have lost people in this war, who know friends, relatives who are suffering in Gaza, in West Bank, all of that, it’s very hard to point your finger at them and say, ‘You have to vote. Trump is worse,'” Moore said. “Their answer is, ‘Yeah, he wouldn’t let us fly. There was a travel ban. This is 42,000 dead of my relatives and friends and neighbors and my people.'”
“I’ve been very hopeful and optimistic. I’d like to stay in that headspace, but I’m a lifelong Michigander. I know what the situation is,” he said.
Both campaigns are vying for the Arab American vote this year, and in an election this close, losing any group could be enough to result in an electoral loss.
Michigan is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, with an estimated population of over 500,000. It is also a critical battleground state in the 2024 election.
With 15 Electoral College votes, Michigan has the fourth-highest electoral votes among this year’s seven swing states, behind Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
President Joe Biden carried Michigan by just 154,000 votes in the 2020 election, partly because of the state’s overwhelming support from Arab American voters.
Arab American support for Democrats collapsed in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel, falling from 40 percent in April 2023 to just 23 percent in October 2023. Last October, fewer than 1 in 5 Arab Americans said they would vote for Biden.
“Sadly, President Biden, who I love, has this critical flaw in hugging Benjamin Netanyahu and supporting the slaughter of civilians,” Moore said. “None of us support this. Kamala Harris doesn’t support this.”
Harris has managed to bring some of those numbers back up, with 42 percent saying they would vote for her in the presidential election. But Democrats are worried that Harris will pay the political price for the U.S. response to the war in Gaza and its support for Israel.
Moore warned Friday that Harris could still lose Michigan by some 40,000 votes even with the improvement. After all, in the 2016 election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost to Trump by an average of just two votes per precinct in Michigan. The Great Lake State would become one of the three crucial states that Trump flipped on his way to victory.
Asked about whether she’s done enough to reach Arab American voters, Harris told reporters on Friday, “I’m very proud to have significant amount of support from the Arab American community, both because of my position about what we need to do in Gaza and in the region to end the war and bring the hostages home and my commitment to a two-state solution, but also because within that community, there are many issues that challenge folks and that they want to hear about.
“Including what we’re going to do to make housing affordable, what we’re going to do to bring down the cost of groceries, what we’re going to do to invest in small businesses. I have a plan for all of those things and that is something that resonates within that community and with all Americans.”
Moore argued Friday it was hard to convince voters who are “full of grief” over the war in Gaza, saying it would be like trying to appeal to Black voters in Alabama during the 1964 election that they should be voting blue when their Democratic governor was a vocal segregationist.
“No one would do that,” Moore said.
Asked about Arab Americans who don’t care if their protest votes make Trump the next president, Harris responded, “There’s a real contrast in this race when you look at who stands for democracy and Democratic principles.”
“Donald Trump is talking about an enemies list. He is talking about using the American military to turn on American citizens. He talks in a way that suggests there should be retribution and severe consequences just because people disagree with him,” Harris said Friday. “My point is very clear. I believe in our democracy. Democracies are very complicated in a wonderful way because we like debate, we accept and receive differences of opinion, and we work them out.”
Moore is banking on the fact that nonvoters in Michigan will turn out for Harris next week.
“Here’s the hope: there are 2 million nonvoters in Michigan,” he said. “They’re registered. They don’t usually vote. Our whole goal for the last month is just, and I do this personally in Michigan, I say, ‘You all know me. Just for me, as a favor, just this vote, please vote for Kamala Harris, and you can go back to being a nonvoter on November 6.'”
Update 11/01/24, 3:55 p.m. ET This article was updated with additional information.