With just three days left to the upcoming US presidential elections, Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The first Palestinian American woman to serve Congress refused to support Harris as she addressed a union rally in Detriot, where the war in Gaza is the top issue for the largest block of Arab American voters in the country.
With this, Tlaib became the only “Squad” member who has not endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee. The other three members—Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York—endorsed Harris in July.
“Don’t underestimate the power you all have,” Tlaib told a get-out-the-vote United Auto Workers rallygoers. “More than those ads, those lawn signs, those billboards, you all have more power to turn out people that understand we’ve got to fight back against corporate greed in our country," she added. It is pertinent to note that Tlaib’s non-endorsement of Harris came at a time when several surveys suggested on Friday that around 43 per cent of Muslim American voters support the Green party candidate, Jill Stein.
Will this cost Harris-Walz the election?
Following former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loss to ex-President Donald Trump in 2016 polls, multiple Democrats blamed Stein voters for the loss of Michigan and Wisconsin to the Republican candidate. Some Democrats are now fearing that the same scenario could play out again next week.
Earlier this year, during the presidential primaries, about 100,000 Michigan voters marked their ballots “uncommitted” as a mark of protest against the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s operation in Gaza after the October 7 attack. Tlaib has been an ardent critic of the Democratic Party’s position on the escalating conflict.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“It was hard not to feel invisible,” she said after the party did not include a Palestinian American speaker at its convention in Chicago in August. “Our trauma and pain feel unseen and ignored by both parties,” she said in an interview with MSNBC, earlier this year. “One party uses our identity as a slur, and the other refuses to hear from us. Where is the shared humanity? Ignoring us won’t stop the genocide," she added.
While addressing a rally in Dearborn on Friday, Tlaib slammed Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who the Muslim mayors of Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck have endorsed.
Trump is a proud Islamophobe + serial liar who doesn't stand for peace. The reality is that the Biden admin’s unconditional support for genocide is what got us here. This should be a wake-up call for those who continue to support genocide. This election didn't have to be close. https://t.co/xufIYRR8Xn
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 1, 2024
“Trump is a proud Islamophobe + serial liar who doesn’t stand for peace,” the Democratic congresswoman later posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The reality is that the Biden administration’s unconditional support for genocide is what got us here. This should be a wake-up call for those who continue to support genocide. This election didn’t have to be close," she added.