Muslim Americans, some of whom live in crucial swing states, are set to launch a campaign that will officially oppose Joe Biden’s re-election bid in 2024.
Axios reports that the campaign, titled “#AbandonBiden,” launched on Saturday with a gathering in Michigan. It consists of left-wing Muslim Americans who oppose Biden’s support for Israel as the country wages war against the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas.
The gathering in Dearborn, Michigan consisted of Muslim leaders from the states of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all of which were crucial in determining the outcomes of the presidential elections in both 2016 and 2020.
This #AbandonBiden 2024 conference is set against the backdrop of the upcoming 2024 presidential election and the decision to withdraw support for President Biden due to his unwillingness to call for a ceasefire and protect innocents in Palestine and Israel,” the group said in its own statement. “Leaders from swing states will work together to guarantee Biden’s loss in the 2024 election.”
One of the organizers of the campaign, Minneapolis resident Jaylani Hussein, said that the campaign’s primary focus for the time being will be social media before eventually expanding. Hussein also acknowledged that such a campaign may very well cost Biden his re-election and result in former President Donald Trump returning to the White House.
“We recognize that, in the next four years, our decision may cause us to have an even more difficult time,” said Hussein. “But we believe that this will give us a chance to recalibrate, and the Democrats will have to consider whether they want our votes or not.”
The Pew Research Center calculates that there are approximately 3.45 million Muslims living in the United States. While the bloc may not be big enough to make a difference in every swing state, it could have a big enough impact in the handful of swing states with large Muslim populations, including Michigan and Minnesota.
In Michigan, census estimates put the total number of Muslim Americans at round 278,000; the margin between President Trump and Biden in the state in 2020 was only about 154,000 votes. In Arizona, while Biden allegedly won the state by 10,500 votes, there are over 60,000 Arabs and Muslims in the state. And in Georgia, where there are over 57,000 Arabs, Biden appeared to defeat President Trump by just 11,800 votes.
While Muslim Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, a recent study from the Arab American Institute estimates that Biden’s support among this group in 2020 was only about 59%, and that number has decreased dramatically in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks against Israel.