Yalla Vote: Arab Americans rally ahead of election

How Arab Americans are campaigning for their candidate

From left, Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden on stage together, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)

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A podcast, an algorithm and a star-studded rally. These are some of the ways Arab Americans are encouraging their neighbours and online followers to make sure the community is represented in this election.

While they may be a comparatively small voting bloc nationally, the memory of 2016, when Donald Trump won in Michigan by about 10,000 votes, remains strong.

The 350,000 Arabs in the state are keenly aware that they could determine the direction in which the swing state goes.

“That’s my friend, or my cousin, or somebody in my life who feels like their vote doesn’t matter,” said Yasmeen Kadouh, 25.

Ms Kadouh runs the Dearborn Girl  podcast, and after years of feeling that Arab Americans were misrepresented in media or used as political props, she is focused on creating a platform where they can "reclaim their identity".

It is a recurring sentiment among Arab Americans who have watched Mr Trump, and others before him, encourage discrimination against their community.

“If we are standing on the sidelines and letting others set the narrative without our input, without our voices, we end up losing out,” said Tazeen Ahmad, the founder of Muslim Women for Biden.

Women such as Ms Kadouh and Ms Ahmad are determined to harness the voting power in their communities to bring about change in this election.

"As an Arab American, as a Muslim American, I don't feel safe living in Trump's America," Ms Kadouh told The National.

"And Trump’s America is not going to go away the day that he steps out of office."

She pauses, then adds: “It’s crazy and wild that I actually have to say those words.”

In Arab-American neighbourhoods they represent a significant percentage of the vote, enough to sway results.

But trying to reach beyond your inner circle in this election has been a challenge made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Data-driven campaigning

Mohamed Gula and Aysha Ahmed of Emgage, a civic engagement group, are on a mission to reach as many Muslim Americans as possible.

Emgage has used a savvy digital strategy to reach their goals. It has made one million phone calls and sent two million text messages to try to rally the community.

They do not support a candidate. They just want to ensure Muslims are voting.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks with restaurant owner Raef Khalaf (C) and his children as she campaigns in Dearborn, Michigan. Reuters

So far, in the 13 states in which they operate, they say 439,000 Muslims have voted early.

To reach the far corners of the community, they teamed up with a data scientist to build an algorithm that could help them to better connect with the nearly 3.5 million Muslims living in the US.

Their algorithm scans voter databases for names traditionally associated with the Arab community, such as Ahmed, Mohammed, Farheen, Khalifa, Aliah and Maryam.

Emgage also relies on data-mining company Catalyst to find Muslims.

Armed with a narrowed list of names provided by the algorithm, Emgage maximises its efforts to reach a goal of one million registered Muslim voters.

“We knew that we'd be able to leverage the data and make certain policy changes that were representative of the Muslim community’s values,” Mr Gula said.

Last year, they did just that.

The group registered more than 600 Muslim community members as Democrats in Fairfax, Virginia, to vote in the 2019 primaries.

They were campaigning to elect Libyan-American Abrar Omeish to the local school board.

But their plans were disrupted when they realised that election day fell right in the middle of Ramadan.

“Because of the number of Muslim sign-ups, they were willing to change the rule of voting out of respect for us breaking our fast and praying during Ramadan," Mr Gula said.

"So they gave us three or four early vote days as well."

Ms Omeish, 24, won a seat on the board, becoming the youngest elected official in the state.

A wave of activism

Arab-American voters have come together during this election in ways that highlight the significance of this vote.

“I've never seen this level of engagement from any campaign that I've actually been a part of,” said Fayrouz Saad, who worked for the Obama administration and co-founded Arab Americans for Biden.

Interconnected volunteer groups emerged this year to connect Arab voters and channel the collective urgency felt among community members.

This election gave birth to groups including Arab Americans for Biden, Muslims for Biden and Muslim Women for Biden.

The Trump administration has made this election personal for Arabs, said Ridah Sabouni, chair of the Democrats Abroad UAE chapter.

"Trump really wants to isolate and marginalise the Arab-American community. I think the opposite has happened. I think he has empowered us," Mr Sabouni told The National.

Arab Americans for Biden has more than 100 volunteers who raise funds, take to the phones, and even held an online "Yalla Vote" rally featuring Hollywood actors.

Americans for Biden hopes to weave together a voting bloc that will triumph over Trump supporters and provide representation for the community.

This is the first election in which a campaign has released a document that directly addresses Arab voters.

Mr Biden’s campaign has outlined promises that include repealing the Muslim ban on his first day in office, addressing hate crimes and restoring economic and humanitarian assistance to Palestine.

Polls show the majority of Arab Americans intend to vote for Mr Biden. But a minority of voters have not been deterred by Mr Trump’s antics.

Mike Hacham voted for Mr Trump in 2016 and looks forward to voting for him again.

He is a member of the Arab American Conservatives, and admits that the Republican Party has done a poor job in reaching out to Arab voters in this election.

"The Democrats are filling in that void,” said Mr Hacham, a Lebanese-American resident of Dearborn.

“They say Trump is racist, and I don't disagree with them that Trump has said things in the past and done things in the past that look bad on my community.

"But we’ve got to look beyond that."

Despite his misgivings about Mr Trump, Mr Hacham is voting with his wallet and says he is among many small business owners in the community who are doing the same.

No matter the outcome of the election, there is a resounding feeling among Arab Americans that the political activism harnessed in this election needs to continue after November 3.

The community has big aspirations, and now they are organised and demanding representation.

“We've learnt to stand up for the democracy and freedom that our parents took the risk for in coming to this great country,” the former US ambassador to Morocco, Edward Gabriel, said during the Yalla Vote rally.