The Abandon Harris movement born in Michigan is expanding to the battleground states of Georgia and Wisconsin to ensure “cease-fire teaser” Kamala Harris does not become the 47th POTUS.
Hassan Abdel Salam, spokesman for the Abandon Harris campaign, told The Washington Times the focus is on steering voters, particularly Muslim and Arab Americans, to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein instead of Harris, whom he labeled the “pro-genocide candidate.”
“We have become familiar with the way in which the president and vice president double-talk to our community by making vague allusions of ending the genocidal war while permitting the state of Israel to continue their attacks on innocent people on the verge of disintegration,” Salam said. “The vice president engages in ‘cease-fire teasing’ — a common practice that began with [President Joe Biden] — by claiming that a cease-fire is on the horizon while children, women, and men are in flames, burning before our eyes.”
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The Abandon Harris campaign officially endorsed Stein at an event in Dearborn earlier this month after rebranding its Abandon Biden efforts the month prior.
“Our demands were simple,” Salam said in Dearborn. “A permanent unconditional ceasefire, and a full arms embargo” against Israel.
The decision to back Stein followed numerous unsuccessful efforts to reach out to Biden, Harris and the Democratic Party to convey concerns of Muslim and Arab voters disgusted with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel.
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In February, more than 100,000 of the group’s supporters and others with an aligned uncommitted campaign refused to cast their vote for Biden during Michigan’s presidential primary over the issue, a movement that has since expanded to about 700,000 voters nationwide.
“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 in Dearborn. “And today that tantrum is a mountain as we set course.
“They said that we would return to the Democratic Party,” he continued. “Mr. President, Madam Vice President, … we’re never, never going to return to the despicable leadership that you modeled this last year.”
Abandon Harris announced on Friday it’s now taking that message to Wisconsin and Georgia, states where Biden prevailed over Trump in 2020 by 20,682 and 11,779 votes, respectively.
An Emgage report on Muslim voter turnout in the 2020 election found 15,142 cast ballots in Wisconsin, while 61,148 voted in Georgia during the last presidential election. The Wisconsin Muslim Journal estimates the state is home to about 70,000 Muslims, while that figure is about 123,000 in Georgia, according to a U.S. Religion Census nonprofit.
A poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in August found Stein leading Harris among Muslim voters in Wisconsin with 44% support, though Harris led the Green Party candidate in Georgia with 43%.
The same poll found Stein leading Harris in the key battleground state of Michigan, home to about 242,000 Muslims, at 40%, followed by Trump at 18%, and Harris with 12%.
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 independent candidate Cornel 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.
An average of polling since late July shows Harris tied with Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin, while Trump holds a 1.7% lead in Georgia, according to FiveThirtyEight.