The Abandon Harris campaign gathered in Dearborn on Wednesday for “a great announcement” with Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
“Our demands were simple,” director Hassan Habdel Salam said, flanked by supporters toting “Abandon Harris” and “Abandon Genocide” signs. “A permanent unconditional ceasefire, and a full arms embargo.”
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Salam detailed how the campaign repeatedly reached out to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Democratic Party to understand the concerns of Muslim and Arab voters disgusted with the current administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel.
“Again and again, silence from the (Biden-Harris) administration,” he said.
The situation culminated with an endorsement of Stein on the eve of Hamas’ Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing conflict, and Wednesday’s press conference to explain why the campaign opted for a third-party endorsement.
“As we went through the campaign, the White House sent their surrogates and a message from the president telling us that we were experiencing a tantrum,” Salam said. “And today that tantrum is a mountain as we set course.
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“They said that we would return to the Democratic Party,” he continued. “Mr. President, Madam Vice President, we are 27 days away from the election and today proof that we’re never, never going to return to the despicable leadership that you modeled this last year.”
Instead, Abandon Harris supporters are uniting with a “partner in truth and conscious,” he said, with the goal to “punish the vice president.”
“Abandon Harris endorses Jill Stein,” he said, likening her morals and focus on upholding the truth to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Other speakers elaborated on why they support the movement and Stein, before the Green Party candidate addressed the crowd, thanking them for the support.
“I’m so humbled and grateful for your endorsement,” Stein said. “And I’m grateful also for your very profound role in this election, serving as the conscious of the nation. Standing strong and fearless, demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza being perpetrated in our name, with our tax dollars, and without our consent as the American people.”
“Abandon Harris is a moral compass for a nation that is lost at sea,” she said.
More than 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the state’s February primary to demand the Biden-Harris administration call for a ceasefire and end all military aid to Israel.
The ground well was motivated by what was then the Abandon Biden campaign, which recently rebranded as Abandon Harris, as well as a separate “uncommitted” movement that has since swelled to more than 700,000 voters nationwide.
While Abandon Harris endorsed Stein, leaders with the uncommitted movement have urged supporters not to vote third party, suggesting that would benefit Republican former President Donald Trump.
The Council on American Islamic Relations last month released polling that shows 40% of Michigan’s Muslim-American voters plan to back Stein in November, while 18% support Trump, 12% support Harris, and 4% plan to vote for independent candidate Cornel West.
Nationally, the poll found 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Harris, 29.1% plan to vote for Stein, 11.2% for Trump, 4.2% for West, and less than 1% for Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver.
The poll found a sizeable 16.5% are yet undecided, while 8.8% don’t plan to vote.
The CAIR survey found 69.1% of American Muslims generally vote for Democrats. Michigan’s Muslim voter population was 206,050 in Michigan in 2020, growing 27% from 2016, according to an Emgage report.
Joe Biden’s margin of victory over Trump in Michigan was 154,188 votes 2020.
The Wednesday announcement from Abandon Harris comes as Future Coalition PAC is bombarding Muslim communities in Michigan with billboards, mailers, and digital online ads touting Harris’ “unwavering” support for Israel in a bid to highlight the divide.
“Vice President Harris has chosen a side – the right side,” a female narrator said in one 30-second video linked to the ads cited by The Huffington Post. “Harris has made herself clear: She stands with Israel and the Jewish people. She has, again and again. She understands the unbreakable bond between the U.S. and Israel. So when [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu came to D.C., Harris hosted the prime minister at the White House. And when supporters of a free Palestine stood up for Gaza, Harris put them in their place.”