President Joe Biden lost the support of an influential Michigan leader on Tuesday after the mayor of Dearborn wrote in an opinion piece that the city’s residents feel like the president and Congress have “turned their backs on us.”
Abdullah H. Hammoud became mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, which is home to the state’s largest Muslim population, in 2021. He said in an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday that the belief he and other Palestinian residents have in Biden dwindles each day as the war between Israel and Gaza continues — and it will affect his vote in the 2024 primary.
“I, like many of my fellow Americans, cannot in good conscience support the continuation of a genocide,” Hammoud wrote. “This has weighed heavy on my heart, particularly as the presidential primary election in Michigan has drawn near.
“It is for that reason that I will be checking the box for ‘Uncommitted’ on my presidential primary ballot next Tuesday,” Hammoud continued. “In doing so, I am choosing hope.”
The mayor’s actions follow calls from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and other advocacy groups to tell voters not to vote for Biden in the Michigan presidential primary, instead asking them to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots on Feb. 27.
“This is the way you can raise our voices, to make us even more visible,” Tlaib said on Saturday in Dearborn. “Right now, we feel completely neglected — neglected and just unseen by our government. If you want us to be louder, then come here and vote uncommitted.”
Hammoud said the goal of his “uncommitted” vote is to push Biden and Democratic leaders to “choose the salvation of our democracy over aiding and abetting [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war crimes.” Palestinians, as well as some Jewish Americans, left-liberal organizations, and other activist groups, have been calling for a ceasefire in the war between the Jewish state and Hamas.
Hammoud said Dearborn “doesn’t sleep” and hasn’t since the “130 days of genocide in Gaza.”
“We don’t have to imagine the violence and injustice being carried out against the Palestinian people,” the mayor wrote. “Many of us lived it, and still bear the scars of life under occupation and apartheid.”
Hammoud said the constant fear and mourning felt by his residents comes in tandem with feeling “betrayal” from Biden, reminding the president how crucial the Arab American voting bloc has been for his success and for the Democratic Party in general in the past three federal elections.
“But this fact seems long forgotten by our candidate as he calls for our votes once more while at the same time selling the very bombs that Benjamin Netanyahu’s military is dropping on our family and friends,” Hammoud wrote.
He said that, until a few months ago, he believed Biden was “one of the most consequential and transformative presidents that our nation had seen,” but now he feels differently. Hammoud knocked Biden and Democrats for ignoring polls that have found overwhelming support from Democrats for a ceasefire.
“But no amount of landmark legislation can outweigh the more than 100,000 people killed, wounded or missing in Gaza,” the mayor wrote. “The scales of justice will not allow it.”
Biden’s reelection campaign is already facing the ramifications of the White House’s support of Israel in Michigan. A poll from the Detroit News/WDIV-TV released in January found just 17% of Michigan voters believe the president deserves another term — a record low for a major public officeholder in the state’s modern history. A poll surveying Arab Americans in October 2023 found that those planning to vote for Biden plummeted from 59% in 2020 to just 17%, largely in response to the president’s support for Israel.
Hammoud concluded in his op-ed that he still believes there is “always time to do the right thing” and urged for the safe return of hostages and prisoners “through an immediate cease-fire.” He encouraged Michigan voters to hold Biden accountable.
“In my sleepless nights, I have often questioned what kind of America my daughters will grow up in: one that makes excuses for the killing of innocent men, women and children, or one that chooses to reclaim hope,” Hammoud said. “What still lies between betrayal and hope is the power of accountability.”
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“It is my prayer — as a father, the son of immigrants, and as a public servant in the greatest city in the greatest nation in the world — that my fellow Michiganders will harness this power and lend their voice to this hope by holding the president accountable,” he concluded.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Biden’s campaign for comment.
