Arab American PAC forgoes presidential endorsement

The political committee of Arab Americans based in Michigan won’t endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, the first time the group has withheld supporting a candidate since it was founded more than 20 years ago.

“This year, we face a choice of two candidates who are harming our communities here and our families and friends in our homelands,” the Arab American Political Action Committee said in a statement Monday. “We simply cannot give our votes to either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, who blindly support the criminal Israeli government led by far right extremists, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The group said “neither candidate represents our hopes and dreams as Arab Americans” and both “have endorsed genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon.”

AAPAC endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has typically endorsed Democrats.

The organization said in the statement that AAPAC members met on Sunday to decide which candidate to endorse, but they “debated for a long time” and came to the conclusion that both Harris and Trump “compete to please and support the Israeli government.” The decision ultimately came because the members were unwilling to sacrifice their “principles for the lesser of two evils,” the statement said.

“By not voting for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, we are not staying silent — to the contrary, we are making a powerful statement and sending a clear message: We refuse to endorse candidates who do not care about us or our concerns, continue to divide America, and are complicit in an active genocide,” AAPAC said in the statement. “Our votes matter, and withholding them will show that we cannot be ignored or taken for granted.”

The organization also declined to endorse a candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat: “We ask our community to not vote for either Democrat Elissa Slotkin or Republican Mike Rogers. Frankly, they are both warmongers and do not deserve your vote.”

AAPAC is based in Dearborn, Michigan, which has large Palestinian and Lebanese American populations, and many of those in Michigan’s Muslim and Arab American communities have voiced concern over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s actions in Lebanon.

The organization is the latest Arab American group in Michigan to not endorse a presidential candidate, putting pressure on Harris to break from President Joe Biden’s policy on Israel. The Uncommitted Movement did not endorse Harris, but it did urge voters last month to not support Trump.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.