Could Harris' approach to Arab-American voters cost her the White House?

Ben Samuels

Kamala Harris' approach – and the rhetoric of her surrogates – during the campaign's home stretch has done nothing but stick a finger in the eye of her disillusioned base. And all this at a time when she needs to secure support from every corner she can find it

One of the most persistent storylines of the 2024 U.S. presidential election has been the Democratic nominees' failure to quell concerns from voters disillusioned by the Biden administration's policies toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

When U.S. President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race in July, many of these frustrated voters – hundreds of thousands of whom reside in battleground states where their votes could very well swing the election – expressed optimism that new nominee Kamala Harris would adopt a more progressive track.

She has accordingly taken pains to articulate her vision for a potential two-state solution with a cease-fire to the Gaza war being the first necessary step, hinting at potential changes should she be elected.

On the campaign trail, however, she has undoubtedly prioritized securing the support of moderates and portions of the electorate more traditionally sympathetic toward Israel over the Palestinians.

To the Harris campaign and many of its liberal surrogates, this should not be considered a binary issue and approaching it as such is among the core reasons the conflict has been so intractable.

However, her approach – and the rhetoric of her surrogates – during the campaign's home stretch has done nothing but stick a finger in the eye of her disillusioned base. And all this at a time where she needs to secure support from every corner she can find it.

One of her biggest own goals, in the eyes of these voters, was the Democratic National Convention's failure to afford time to a Palestinian-American speaker. The Uncommitted National Movement provided the DNC and the Harris campaign with a list of speakers and prepared remarks, in an effort to indicate that it was not trying to antagonize or self-sabotage the party.

Months after this request was ignored, the campaign has again declined to provide any of these speakers with a platform in hopes of securing their vote. Instead, Harris has prioritized the support of "moderates" like Liz Cheney – one of the Republican Party's most vocal foreign policy hawks for years before she found herself exiled from the GOP.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has seized upon Harris' embrace of Cheney to illustrate why he deserves the support of the Arab-American community. He has parlayed this into support from leading community members while also emphasizing the support of socially conservative Muslims, as Republican operatives funded by megadonors have attempted to further drive a wedge using bad-faith tactics and oversimplified arguments amid the backdrop of antisemitic tropes.

Even Harris' traditional Democratic allies, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have been overtly dismissive of these voters while trafficking in bizarre oversimplications of their own.

"Hamas did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians. They wanted to kill Israelis and make Israel uninhabitable. I got news for them – they were there first before their faith existed. They were there in the time of King David in the southernmost tribes, had Judea and Samaria," he told a Michigan rally. "When I read people in Michigan are thinking about not voting because they're mad at the Biden administration for honoring its historic obligation to try to keep Israel from being destroyed, I think that's a mistake," he added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, has attempted to directly engage with these voters, stressing that Trump would be far worse than Harris on this issue and there is potential to move her in the desired policy direction.

Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, directly addressed these voters in an interview with CBS earlier this week, saying: "There's one ticket here that is going to find the pathway to stabilization in the Middle East, but also one that is going to respect their human rights here."

While this may be true, the Harris campaign is heading into the weekend before the election leaving many of these voters on the table. Whether or not this serves as a validation of her strategy or a precursor to her defeat will be clear soon enough.