DEARBORN, Michigan: As the United States hurtles toward a presidential election this November between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, AFP has been taking the temperature in key counties of seven battleground states.
Wayne County, Michigan is steeped in history and influence — it is home to Detroit, the “Motor City” and the birthplace of Motown. It also boasts a significant Arab American population that could play a key role in the election.
Voters were asked two key questions: “What matters most to you in casting your vote?” and “What are your biggest fears for the country?“
Here’s what five people in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn had to say:
• Samra’a Luqman, a progressive activist and member of the Abandon Biden campaign in Michigan, said what matters most to her in this election is “holding a politician accountable for a genocide.”
“My biggest fear is that we fail to hold Biden accountable for aiding, abetting and committing this genocide, and that future politicians and presidents know that there is no red line when it comes to genocide. That’s my biggest fear,” she said.
• Hamzah Nasser moved to the United States from Yemen as a young child and is now CEO of the Haraz Coffee House chain.
“What matters to me the most is a president who wants to rebuild the economy in the United States and create more jobs, just like us as entrepreneurs,” Nasser told AFP.
“The best thing about what I do is creating jobs and giving back to the community and to the economy and this country overall,” he said.
“My biggest fear is a war that expands and where more terrorists are born out of it — and when I say terrorists, it could be homegrown terrorists or abroad,” Nasser added.
“The US has so much concern about other countries and what happens in other countries. And they don’t pay attention to this country, and a lot of the school shootings and crimes and domestic terrorists that are here in this country.”
For Hamzah Nasser, what matters most is "a president who wants to rebuild the economy in the United States and create more jobs." (AFP)
• Merwan Beydoun works at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill and is a member of the United Auto Workers union.
When asked what was most important in the upcoming election, Beydoun said: “I don’t think I have one thing. I think I have a multiple of equal things that will matter to me. And I believe the Middle East conflict is one of them. And I believe that the support for the union is another one.”
As for his biggest fear, Beydoun said it would be “if the elected officials in Congress or the president or vice president don’t see the concerns of the American people and act on them.”
• Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News newspaper said foremost on his mind for the election was “Gaza, killing Palestinians, killing children, murdering people.”
“My biggest fear is my country is going downhill very fast — ethically, morally, economically, socially. Divided. It’s very scary,” he told AFP.
• Soujoud Hamade is an attorney and founding partner at HNH Law Group.
“What will matter the most to me in the presidential election when I vote in November is the candidates’ stance on international policy and whether or not they have a humanitarian stance toward what is happening in Gaza, and in the West Bank, and in Lebanon and Syria,” she said.
“My biggest fear for my country is that we will go down in history as a country that supported a genocide against innocent civilians, and that we will become the social pariahs of the world for not standing up against this genocide.”
