Muslim voters once abandoned the GOP. Now they may leave the Democrats.
Arab and Muslim voters moved away from the Democratic Party this year in ways that led some community leaders to warn of a lasting shift from a voting bloc that has been reliably Democratic for two decades since it abandoned the GOP.
Arab and Muslim voters moved away from the Democratic Party this year in ways that led some community leaders to warn of a lasting shift from a voting bloc that has been reliably Democratic for two decades since it abandoned the GOP.
While no single group proved to be the difference maker in Tuesday’s election that President-elect Donald Trump won by a comfortable margin, the outcome shows another group of voters of color trending toward Trump despite his rhetoric about them.
“We may see a mass exodus of multigenerational Democrats from the party,” said Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the national Uncommitted movement, which sprang up during the Democratic primaries to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. “If the Democratic Party does not move in a way that is more aligned with their base, there’s going to be real long-term repercussions.”
Muslim Democratic operatives swapped stories of parents or aunts and uncles voting Republican or third party for the first time in their lives and now worry they may not get them back.
Muslim voters backed Republican George W. Bush in 2000, but fled the GOP in response to the Bush administration’s post-9/11 military interventions abroad and anti-terror policies at home, which they felt unfairly targeted people of Islamic faith.
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