Walid Fidama got the message, now he’s among scores of Arab and Muslim Americans who are sending a message of their own.

Fidama, a Yemeni American who has faithfully backed Democrats since gaining his citizenship in 1994, helped to found the Yemeni Democratic Caucus, and worked for decades to elect Democratic candidates.

He spent years cultivating relationships with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other top Democrats on the state and federal level, banking on those relationships to provide a pathway to address concerns from his community.

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“I did a lot of things for the Democrats,” Fidama told The Midwesterner.

But the war in Gaza, and the Biden-Harris administration’s response, changed the dynamic.

Suddenly, Fidama said, Democrats were unwilling to hear concerns from Muslim- and Arab-Americans about the bloodshed in their homelands, dissolving lines of communication Fidama and others spent years to establish.

“They are trying to close the door. They didn’t want to listen to anybody,” he said.

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The Muslim vote was taken for granted, with the attitude from party officials that “it’s ok, even if we ignore them,” Fidama said.

“I know we’re not a big number, but I think the number they lost this election will surprise them,” he said. “We want them to know we’re not a puppet to anybody.”

At the Michigan Democratic Party’s convention last summer, it quickly became obvious Muslim and Arab Democrats were unwanted, with party leaders generally ignoring folks like Fidama, and once-influential groups, including the Arab American Democratic Caucus.

“It showed us we are not even have a welcoming from the executive from the Michigan Democratic Party. They already have their agenda,” Fidama said. “You start thinking, ‘why do I have to stay here.’”

“We got the message,” he said. “We’re going to give them the message in the way we like.”

In February, more than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Michigan primary to register their frustrations with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel, and to demand the administration call for a permanent ceasefire and halt all military aid to the nation’s closest ally.

In the months since, groups including a now national Uncommitted Movement, and associated Abandon Harris campaign, have rallied at least 700,000 voters nationwide to do the same. The groups’ leaders reached out repeatedly to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to discuss the issue, but were largely rebuffed and blocked from addressing their concerns at the Democratic National Convention.

The situation has resulted in Abandon Harris’ endorsement for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, while the Uncommitted Movement and other Arab and Muslim leaders are urging followers to vote third party.

Fidama is among others in the Arab and Muslim community that are taking a different track following a series of meetings with top Republican officials and former President Donald Trump.

“The good things he said: he will bring the peace and will try hard to bring the peace everywhere,” Fidama said. “Why not try the Republican when the other party just closed the doors on all the connections? They don’t want to talk to us.”

Other highly respected Muslim leaders and Imams are coming to the same conclusion, with several appearing at a Trump rally in Novi over the weekend to put their support behind The Don.

“We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war!” Imam Belal Alzuhairi said.

“We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine,” Alzuhairi said. “The bloodshed has to stop all over the world, and I think this man can make that happen. I personally believe that God saved his life twice for a reason.”

Other supporters included Bill Bazzi, the first Muslim and Arab American elected mayor of Dearborn Heights, as well as Amer Ghalib, mayor of the nation’s only Muslim majority city – Hamtramck.

“Though it’s looking good, he may or may not win the election and be the 47th president of the United States, but I believe he is the right choice for this critical time,” Ghalib wrote in Arabic in a Facebook post announcing his endorsement earlier this month. “I’ll not regret my decision no matter what the outcome would be, and I’m ready to face the consequences. For this, and for many other reasons, I announce my support and endorsement for the former, and hopefully, the next President of the United States, Donald Trump.”

Trump won Michigan in 2016 by 10,704 votes, and President Joe Biden prevailed in 2020 with a 154,000 vote margin, boosted by the Muslim and Arab communities.

An Emgage report from 2020 showed Michigan’s Muslim voter population was 206,050 when Biden won, up 27% from 2016.

“Biden would not have won Michigan without Muslim votes. For sure,” Dawud Walid, executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CBC. “He would have not won without the Muslim community being galvanized, organized and overwhelmingly voting for him.”

A CAIR survey in September found 69.1% of American Muslims generally vote for Democrats. The poll found 40% of Michigan Muslim-American voters plan to back Stein next month, 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.

For some of those voters like Fidama, the shift away from Democrats may be permanent.

“I support former President Donald Trump and I’m a full supporter for the Republicans,” he said. “Maybe that’s forever, maybe.”