Arab American voters helped push President-elect Donald Trump over the top in Michigan on Election Day, giving him over 50,000 votes in predominantly Arab towns that President Joe Biden had won easily in 2020, reports show.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump made a late push for Arab and Muslim votes after it became clear that many in the community did not want to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, over the Gaza war and several other issues.
In addition to efforts by the Trump campaign, which were spearheaded by Ric Grenell (now in the running fo Secretary of State), there were also grassroots efforts by activists such as Michelle Dawi (formerly of Breitbart News).
Michael Traugott noted in the Times of Israel on Monday:
More than 100,000 Michigan voters picked “uncommitted” instead of Biden during the Democratic primary.
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Trump made multiple visits to Arab American groups during the general election campaign. He used his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law, Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American, as a surrogate. The mayors of Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights endorsed him.
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In just [Dearborn and Dearborn Heights], plus Hamtramck, Trump received 50,332 votes.
Trump won Michigan by 80,618 votes, with 95% of the voted counted thus far.
He did so not by abandoning Israel — he named the staunchly pro-Israel Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as his UN Ambassador on Sunday — but rather by emphasizing his track record of pushing for peace overall in the Middle East.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
