Kamala Harris has a Muslim Voter Problem in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE – For Abdulhamid Ali and for many Muslim American voters in swing state Wisconsin, the choice isn’t so clear.

It is not domestic issues that primarily concern Ali, of Whitefish Bay, north of Milwaukee. Two months away from one of the most consequential presidential elections in U.S. history, he seeks more convincing from Vice President Kamala Harris that she’ll help create an autonomous Palestinian state and end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Every vote matters in Wisconsin, which was decided in 2020 by just 20,000 votes. Harris cannot be sure she will get Ali’s vote even though he backed President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump four years ago. Wisconsin is home to roughly 40,000 Muslim voters. Harris is set to hold a rally late Friday in Madison, an area with a substantial Muslim population.

“I have some doubts,” Ali, 65, told Newsweek, voicing his anger over the fighting in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas authorities say an Israeli offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians since the militant group attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping 250 others.

Ali, who has voted in every U.S. election he has been able to since emigrating from Somalia in 1980, accused Harris of giving little more than “lip service” to Muslim Americans calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as an embargo of U.S. weapons to Israel.

“I want to see a concrete plan,” he said. “For her to say, ‘I will create a free and democratic Palestinian state, and these are the steps we will take.'”

Ali, who owns a civil engineering firm, plans to vote in state and local races but will abstain from voting for president if he doesn’t see that plan.

Harris leads Trump 52 percent to 48 percent across all registered voters in the Badger State, according to a Marquette Law School Poll survey.

But among Muslim voters in Wisconsin, Harris trails Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has repeatedly vowed to end what she calls the “genocidal war” in Gaza, according to a survey in late August. Stein garnered 44 percent, compared to 39 percent for Harris and just 8 percent for Trump. Nationally, Muslim support for Stein and Harris is roughly equal at around 29 percent each.

Muslims across the nation overwhelmingly favored Joe Biden four years ago, with 86 percent backing the president and just 6 percent supporting Donald Trump. Another 8 percent didn’t vote or chose another candidate, a survey found.

This time, the Green Party nominee’s pledge on Gaza has attracted Muslim voters like Farhat Khan, a physician in Wisconsin who voted for Biden in 2020 but won’t be going blue again in November.

“We want to vote and we want to get counted, so we’ll go to the Green Party,” said Khan, a Pakistani native who has lived in the U.S. since 1991. “We know Jill Stein is not going to make it to the White House, but if she gets 20,000 or 30,000 votes in Wisconsin and Democrats lose, this will be a lesson for them to learn that next time they can’t ignore this vibrant and growing community.”

Maqsood Khan, a gastroenterologist in Franklin, Wisconsin and president of the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, also voted for Biden in 2020, but the father of five criticized Harris for not denouncing Islamophobia forcefully enough, as well for her stance on the Middle East.

“Too many innocent lives have been lost,” he said. “Any life – whether a Jew or a Muslim – is valuable. I’m a physician; I cherish life. The only way I can move forward is diplomacy and respecting human life,” he said.

Harris campaign national security spokeswoman Morgan Finkelstein referred Newsweek to the vice president’s comments during a Sept. 10 debate against Trump when asked for a response to concerns shared by Muslim voters.

Harris said Israel had a right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks, but also that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

“What we know is that this war must end,” she said, pledging to continue working “around the clock” on a ceasefire deal, as well as to “chart a course” for a two-state solution.

Other Muslims in Wisconsin prefer Harris, at least as an alternative to Trump. Masood Akhtar, an entrepreneur and activist in Madison launched a group called We Are Many-United Against Hate in 2016 after then-President-elect Trump indicated he’d support establishing a Muslim registry.

“Step one: save democracy first – that means defeat Donald Trump,” the Indian American Muslim activist told Newsweek. “Step two: be at the table with decision-makers at the White House after the election so that we are not on the table, particularly with focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

If Harris topples Trump, Akhtar hopes to take a delegation of Muslim and Jewish voters to the White House to develop policies for peace in the Middle East.

Othman Atta, executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest Islamic organization, said many local Muslim voters are “very upset” by ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, leaving many unsure whom to support for president.

That was pushing some Muslim voters towards Stein, he said.

“They know she’s not going to win,” Atta said. “But it’s like, ‘Hey, we need to do a protest vote.’ This election, people are saying I’m sick of voting for the lesser of two evils.”

While Wisconsin’s Muslim community may have drifted from the Democratic camp over the Gaza war, there’s less indication the Jewish vote will be swayed by calculations over Israel despite Trump claiming Israel may cease to exist if Harris is elected.

Jewish voters across the country widely prefer Harris to Trump, according to polls. Seventy-two percent said they plan to vote for the Democratic nominee, compared to 25 percent for the former president, a recent survey by the Jewish Democratic Council of America found. That’s virtually unchanged from 2020, when 70 percent of Jewish Americans voted for Biden, while 27 percent supported Trump, Pew Research Center data shows.

Harris’ 47-point margin over Trump among Jewish voters polled from Aug. 27 through Sept. 1 exceeds the 41-point lead Biden held in April before he dropped out of the race and left the Democratic nomination to her, according to a poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute.

In Wisconsin, where roughly 42,000 eligible Jewish voters reside, several expressed concerns over how Harris will navigate the Israel-Hamas war, but cited other factors for supporting the vice president over Trump.

“I believe that Donald Trump uses fear and lies to divide us as a country for personal gains,” Marcy Huffaker, 55, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, told Newsweek. “Vice President Kamala Harris will work with other legislators and representatives to find ways to make all our lives better.”

Huffaker, 55, also supported Harris’ stances on reproductive rights, immigration and the Israel-Hamas war.

“Israel has a right to protect itself, even though I believe it has gone too far. And I also believe that Palestinians deserve equality, civil and human rights, and self-governance,” she said.

Others, like Jeff Spitzer-Resnick, 65, of Oxford, Wisconsin, also cited Harris’s Middle East plans as a positive, if not the top priority: balancing her defense of Israel while reinforcing Palestinian rights to self-determination.

“I have grave concerns about whether she will actually have the guts to cut off military aid to Israel,” he added. “I think it’s open to question; no president has yet to be willing to do that.”

Brandon Maly, chair of the Republican Party of Dane County, said the “equation changed” for most of Wisconsin’s Jewish voters following the October terror attack by Hamas.

“What I hear over and over again is initially Joe Biden’s response was welcomed by moderate Jews and then he started to get weaker and weaker on Israel,” Maly, 24, told Newsweek. “And now that Harris is the candidate and she’s said she’d be open to an arms embargo and wants a two-state solution, she’s taken up some very unpopular stances on the Jewish community.”

Maly, who is Jewish, believes the stakes could not be higher.

“A lot of people like myself feel like it’s existential,” he said. “Israel may not survive weak American leadership and American leadership that isn’t crystal clear in its support of Israel.”

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Harris of having “zero foreign policy experience” aside from supporting Biden’s agenda that has emboldened adversaries overseas, led to the Ukraine war and enabled Iranian-backed terrorists to attack Israel.

“Kamala Harris is dangerously liberal and there is zero doubt that America will be a more dangerous place if she was our commander in chief,” she said.

Some Jewish voters are approaching from the same direction as many Muslims, however. One of those considering whether to choose Harris in November is Rachel Ida Buff, co-chair of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. She is still unsure she will vote for Harris.

“We need the genocide to stop immediately,” Buff told Newsweek. “Vice President Harris has been saying some positive things, but we have not seen action – and that is devastating.”