Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will both be in the race in next month's election, as a growing group of Muslim voters in Georgia and both candidates support Israel amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He claims he does not support it.
Harris has said she supports Israel's right to self-defense and will not withhold weapons from the country, but has also called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while Trump recently said he is Israel's “protector”. He reaffirmed his support for the Jewish state.
In the battleground state of Georgia, which Trump narrowly lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, the Peach State could help decide whether Harris or Trump wins the presidency.
Georgia's Muslim population may also influence which candidates win the state's 16 electoral votes. Recent polls show that Harris and Trump are virtually tied among American Muslim voters, with Harris holding a one-point lead. Arab American Institute.
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A growing group of Muslim voters in Georgia say they will not support Vice President Harris or former President Trump because of their support for Israel. (Getty Images)
Kristen Truitt, a Muslim-American voter who lives in Atlanta, said she voted Democratic in previous elections, but now she doesn't support Democrats over their stance on Israel.
“Just giving them unlimited funds and access to Israel, I think that's just ridiculous,” Truitt said. fox 5 atlanta.
This took place just before the one-year anniversary of the ongoing war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists. The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and took over 250 hostages, triggering retaliatory action by the Israeli military.
The Hamas-run government's health ministry in Gaza estimates that more than 41,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although it does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths. More than 1,500 people have reportedly been killed in Israel since the start of the civil war, most of them on October 7 and in the immediate aftermath.
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Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event at the Philip Chosky Theater on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Rebecca Droke/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A growing group of Muslim voters in Georgia and across the country say they will not vote for either Harris or Trump because both sides have vocally supported Israel in the Gaza war, and the conflict is now centered on Israel. It has expanded to include attacks on Hezbollah's terrorist targets. In Lebanon.
“What we're saying is we really need to abolish the logic of voting for the lesser of two evils,” said Kareem Ross, Georgia co-director of the Abandon Harris campaign. Handler told FOX 5.
The Abandon Harris campaign group is calling on Muslims to vote for third parties to send a message to Republicans and Democrats that they need to win the votes of Muslim communities.
“I think the main argument is that the American Muslim community cannot be taken for granted,” Rothhandler said.
Rothhandler said the group has already received commitments from more than 10,000 Muslim voters to support third-party candidates. Some third-party candidates, including Libertarian Chase Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, have criticized Israel's war in Gaza.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a town hall event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Friday, October 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Carl B. DeBraker)
The decline in Muslim voters is expected to hit Harris harder than Trump, as Republican candidates have historically struggled to secure Muslim votes.
“It's essentially going to have a bigger negative impact on the Harris-Waltz ticket than it would on the Trump-Vance ticket,” Alicia Hughes, an assistant professor at Emory University School of Law and a voting expert, told Fox 5 Atlanta. “Historically, Trump has not been able to rely on those votes.”
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Hughes also said that even if Harris or Trump were more vocal in criticizing Israel, it might not help their electoral chances.
“There's a good chance you'll actually lose more than you gain by making a change,” she says.
