US election: The Arab-Americans turning to ‘wild card’ Trump in Michigan
America is full of contradictions. This is the story of one of them: the Arab-Americans who will vote for Donald Trump.
He’s the man who says immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country”, who calls them “terrorists”, and who wants a “Muslim ban”.
And yet, in a journey through Michigan, I’ve found they are swinging to him.
Follow live: Jitters on US markets amid heavy betting on Trump win
It’s not just a story about the war in the Middle East. It goes beyond the desire to punish Biden and now Harris. It is about much more than the war.
In places like Dearborn or Hamtramck, it doesn’t take long to discover that a dynamic shift in views is taking place and that – as is so often the case – is about a perceived sense of abandonment but here with a particular twist.
A flag depicting the attempted assassination of Trump at a Michigan home
My journey began at a local high school. Picture the place you’d imagine in the movies and that’s it.
Red brick outside, rows of lockers inside. The yellow buses, the Stars and Stripes and the pledge of allegiance.
It is the perfect reflection of America but with a diversity that defies the stereotypes, and views that may do too.
The Frontier International Academy is in the heart of Hamtramck, the only Muslim-majority city in America and the students reflect the demographic.
In between the “recess” game of American Football, the first-time voters and second-generation immigrants talk politics.
“We don’t know what she is going to provide, we don’t know what she is going to do. So I think it’s just a safer bet to go for Donald Trump,” 18-year-old Jubran Ali tells me.
Jubran Ali, 18, who thinks Trump is a ‘safer bet’ than Harris
“I’m actually asking people around me to see what they’re voting, and most people are voting for Donald Trump,” Edris Alhady, also 18, says.
Michigan is one of the seven swing states in this country where the White House will be won or lost.
Shifts to the left or the right among small margins of voters will determine which way the country goes.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Have bookies decided on next US president?
In 2016, Trump was the first Republican to win Michigan since 1988. He beat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 11,000 votes.
Four years later, in 2020, Joe Biden won the state by only 154,188 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast – a 2.8% margin of victory.
Read more:
Musk vows to give $1m a day over election petition
Trump paces the stage in silence after mic cuts out
Harris risked a lot for Fox interview – it may not have paid off
Michigan has the highest number of Arab-Americans in America. They represent a key voting bloc – one which the Democratic Party may have taken for granted.
Amer Ghalib is the mayor of Hamtramck. He is member of the Democratic Party and his office reflects his political roots- a photo of him with President Joe Biden sits prominently on his desk.
But something profound has happened since that snap was taken.
On Friday Mayor Ghalib welcomed Donald Trump to the city – a visit which came weeks after he endorsed the former president.
Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed the former president
“Why Trump?” I asked.
“Well… it’s a combination of two things. Disappointment and hope. Disappointment that the current administration and how they are handling things locally or internationally, and hope that the new administration, led by Trump, will do something different.”
Our conversation was revealing in many ways. I’d come to this city expecting to hear anger about American policy in the Middle East. After all, the people here have deep existing ties to the region.
But only now was it obvious that the Arab-American shift right is also a consequence of the gradual leftward drift by the Democrats.
It’s about the real war in the Middle East, but it’s about culture wars too.
👉 Tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts 👈
Last year an attempt to fly a pride flag on city property was blocked by the mayor and his team.
“There is so much aggression and attempts to enforce certain values on the majority of this community,” Mayor Ghalib said, “…on schools, on public properties, city hall and the Democratic Party is not doing anything to prevent that shift in dynamics.”
I asked if anyone from Kamala Harris’s team had been in touch about his concerns before or since his endorsement of Trump.”No. No,” he said.
“Does that surprise you?”
“They think I’m a fake Democrat. All my life here I voted Democrat.”
Trump’s visit to the city is the culmination of groundwork by members of Team Trump for months, an indication of how important they see this state and this demographic.
So what about Trump’s pro-Israel stance? As he arrived in Detroit last week he praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Well, I don’t think there’s anything worse than what’s happening now,” the mayor said.
It’s a sentiment echoed here. The idea that no one can be worse than the Democrats on Israel-Gaza, and that domestically – on social issues and the economy – Trump would be better for this community.
Drive west out of Hamtramck through the Detroit suburbs and you reach Dearborn.
About half the population here is Arab-American, most from Lebanon. Over coffee with local environmental activist Samraa Luqman, a conversation that should alarm the Harris campaign.
Samraa Luqman, who voted for Clinton in 2016 and wrote in Sanders’s name in 2020
She tells me that she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she wrote Bernie Sanders’s name onto the ballot in 2020. And this year?
“I’m voting for Trump,” Samraa says. “Why?” I ask.
“The genocide. Policy-wise, I don’t like any of the Republican policies, to be frank, at all… I will still vote for him because one thing I hate more than all those other policies is genocide… And that’s the sentiment of an entire community.”
I asked what made her think Trump would be any better for the Arab cause.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“Trump is a wild card… will he do exactly what Kamala does or worse or better? But I know for sure what the Democrats are doing and they’re intending to continue it.”
This journey through communities that feel now forgotten and unheard ends for me where it started for them – at Detroit’s old Ford factory which drew so many Middle Eastern immigrants here generations ago.
There I met the local Yemeni-American Democratic Party caucus leader with a startling conclusion.
“I think the damage is great. I assure you that it’s not just about Michigan. This is a nationwide phenomena,” he said.
“I am very worried,” Abdulhakim Alsadeh said.
Abdulhakim Alsadeh
I ask him if he thinks the Democratic Party has messed up this campaign.
“Yes, I believe so. I really do,” he said. “The Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump, reached out to the Yemeni-American community. They sat with him. They talked with him.”
“Everybody is concerned,” he said.
It won’t take many to swing this state and streamline the path to the White House.
Here, through all the contradictions, many are swinging to Trump.
Freelance producer Ahmed Baider contributed to this report
Americans are choosing their new president today.
Either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be the new occupant of the White House in January.
For many people, their vote will make little difference.
The main crunch points are in seven states and one inner state district.
In the following game, you can predict who will win in each swing state.
We will tell you at the end who the new president will be – if you have made correct predictions.
Good luck!
Voters across 50 states are preparing to cast their ballots after a bitterly contested US election campaign, which will see Donald Trump or Kamala Harris become president.
In the last few hours, both candidates have been giving their final pitches. “The momentum is on our side,” Ms Harris told a crowd in Philadelphia that chanted back, “We will win”.
“Tonight, then, we finish as we started: with optimism, with energy, with joy,” she said, while enjoying the support of celebrity endorsements on the day from Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi.
In contrast, Mr Trump ended his campaign in Michigan, repeating key messages about the economy and immigration.
A handful of states will play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the election. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin hold the keys to the White House.
To become president, the winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes or more, with each state carrying a different number of votes.
But the focus has been on Pennsylvania which carries 19 electoral votes, the most of all the swing states.
It has been a remarkable journey for both candidates – with Mr Trump surviving two assassination attempts and Ms Harris not even originally in the running.
Katy Perry performed in Pittsburgh in support of Kamala Harris. Pic: AP
For more than a year, the 2024 presidential race seemed destined for a rematch between Joe Biden and Mr Trump – but a disastrous TV debate by Mr Biden eventually forced him to withdraw from the ticket.
The Democratic party’s decision to replace Mr Biden with his vice president transformed the race and shifted polls in Ms Harris’s favour. But only just.
Many polls are too tight to call and, with a large margin of error, most experts are refusing to predict the outcome.
Read more:
Overseas ballots face legal challenge
You decide the new president
Should we fear Trumponomics?
Later, attention will turn to those battleground states including Georgia, which is among the first polls to close at 7pm local time (midnight UK time).
State election officials told Sky News they could have a result as early as 10pm (3am UK time).
Even so, it could be several days before the US has a definitive result.
Voters are not just selecting a president. In addition, 10 states will hold abortion-related ballots, half of which would overturn existing restrictions.
Predict who you think will win in each swing state and we’ll tell you who the president will be if you’re right.
Tonight, Sky News will have access to the most comprehensive exit poll and vote-counting results from every state, county and demographic across America through its US-partner network NBC.
You can find out more about Sky News’ coverage here.
US
Voter in UK ‘terrified’ by US election legal battle, as up to 4,000 ballots challenged in Pennsylvania
Up to 4,000 people voting overseas in the US election are having their ballots challenged in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
They include Selma Aldi, 47, from Camden in north London who received a letter on Sunday explaining that her ballot in the US presidential election is at risk of being rejected.
“It was a shock,” she said. “It was terrifying to be targeted, to potentially lose a right that I hold as very important. It’s even a feeling that someone is questioning my identity.”
The trainee GP, who grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania left America in 2000 but has voted via absentee ballot in every US presidential election since.
A letter from election officials in Dauphin County outlines the legal challenge. It reads: “The applicant is not registered to vote and therefore is not eligible to vote in Pennsylvania.
“Under Pennsylvania law, it is a felony to permit any person to vote who is not registered.”
A hearing on the legal challenge is scheduled for Friday, in which Ms Aldi can respond.
Around 2.8 million US citizens living abroad are entitled to vote in the election, no matter where they are on polling day.
But each state has different procedures and rules on how election paperwork can be sent and received.
Selma Aldi on her graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, seated next to a figure of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the US.
But Ari Savitzky, senior staff Attorney at the ACLU said “any attempt to challenge [voters] eligibility is a clear violation of their rights”.
He told Sky News: “Between 3,000 and 4,000 challenges have been filed in Pennsylvania to the absentee ballots of US citizens living abroad.
“For decades, federal law has guaranteed the right of US citizens living abroad to vote in federal elections at their last US residence.
“In addition to being legally baseless, these challenges are an abuse to voters and to election administrators.”
Read more from Sky News:
US election: Colleges, swing states and how it all works
Should we fear Trumponomics?
What happens if there’s a tie in the US election?
Deborah Hinchey from another voting rights group, All Voting is Local, said: “Election deniers across Pennsylvania have submitted thousands of mass challenges to overseas voters.
“They want to block as many ballots as possible and silence our voices… but these baseless challenges have failed before and the proper checks and balances are in place to make sure they’ll fail again,” she added.
Tonight, Sky News will have access to the most comprehensive exit poll and vote-counting results from every state, county and demographic across America through its US-partner network NBC.
You can find out more about Sky News’ coverage here.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway