Sitting on a bench in a small square in the heart of Dearborn, a Michigan political battleground city with a large Arab-American community, Fatima reserved judgment on Kamala Harris.
The 24-year-old woman, who declined to give her last name, voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but is troubled by the rising Palestinian death toll in Gaza and recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon and is unsure whether she will support a Democrat in November’s presidential election.
Fatima said Harris “maybe” would be better than Biden, who many in Dearborn see as overly supportive of Israel’s actions in Gaza, but that would depend on what happens in the coming weeks. “If she can give hope or reassurance to Palestinians, that’s the only reason I’d vote for her,” she said.
Since launching her White House campaign against President Donald Trump on July 21 after Biden dropped out of the race, Harris has energized a swath of the Democratic base crucial to securing victory in the presidential election, from young voters to women and people of color.
But those who see the Gaza war as a defining issue in the race – many of them in southeastern Michigan, where distrust of Democrats runs deep – are wary of the party’s new candidate.
“Most of our community leans Democratic, but most of them feel like they don’t want to vote,” said Abeer, an older woman standing outside a local grocery store in Dearborn who said she regrets voting for Biden in 2020 and has “no idea” what she’ll do in November.
“I was just going to stand by and watch. [Harris] “We’ve made our position clear that this has to stop,” she said.
Harris has not supported any shift in Biden’s Israel policy but has sought to distance herself from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She did not attend Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress in Washington last month and met with Biden separately. After the meeting, Harris said her commitment to Israel’s security was “unwavering” but that she would not “remain silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering.
Jim Zogby, founder of the advocacy group Arab American National Congress, said Harris has made a point of “communicating” with the Arab community since the beginning of the conflict. He predicted that Harris “will win back the support of many who have been hesitant or reluctant to the administration,” but added that “Harris has to maintain her position.”
Adjusting Harris’ message on the Middle East is likely to be her campaign’s biggest foreign policy challenge. As she arrived at Detroit’s airport on Wednesday for a major campaign rally, she met for what an aide described as a “brief exchange” with the activists who turned more than 100,000 Detroit residents into voting “independents” over Biden in the Democratic primary earlier this year in a backlash against the White House.
One of the movement’s leaders, Leila Ellabed, became emotional when she told Harris that she wanted to support her but that they needed “life-saving” policies for Gaza now, including an arms embargo on Israel.
But while activists left with the impression that Harris was open to discussing an end to arms transfers to Israel, her national security adviser, Phil Gordon, changed their mind on Thursday morning.
He wrote to X: “She will always ensure that Israel can defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She will not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and uphold international humanitarian law.”
Additionally, during the Detroit rally, Harris was interrupted multiple times by protesters chanting, “Kamala Kamala, you can’t hide, we will not vote for genocide.”
“I’m here because I believe in democracy, and your voice matters,” she initially said, but then added, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, say so. If not, I’ll speak,” as most of the crowd cheered her on.
After the march, protester Zainab Hakim, 21, said Harris had been “very disrespectful.” “You hear this rhetoric a lot: ‘You’re brown, you’re Muslim, you’re Palestinian. You think a Trump administration is going to make your life better?'” she said.
“[But] “For my Palestinian friends, if their relatives and their compatriots are being slaughtered under a Biden administration, and likely under a Kamala administration, that’s not good for them,” she added.
After being heckled again in Arizona on Friday, Harris said: “I’ve been very clear: It’s time for a ceasefire and an end to the hostage trade. The time is now.”
The mathematical reality is that defections from traditional Democratic bases could work in Trump’s favor and make the difference in very evenly balanced battleground states, including Michigan.
But for most voters, Gaza is not the only issue in the election. If Harris garners enough support among other Democrats, independents and swing voters, they might be willing to accept some losses from the Middle East conflict. Taking a tough stance against the protesters could help her fend off criticism from the right that she is too liberal.
What happens diplomatically in the Middle East may also be important to her prospects of defeating Trump, with Washington trying to help broker a ceasefire agreement along with Egypt and Qatar that would halt hostilities between Israel and Hamas and lead to the release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
“I think she’s trying to make critics of the administration’s policies toward Israel and Gaza feel heard, but she also doesn’t seem keen to push for what some activists want – an embargo on U.S. arms sales to Israel,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
“Perhaps the simple fact that she’s not Biden will prompt at least some of Biden’s critics to respond more favorably to her,” he added.
But Mahadeh Kazan, who owns an ice cream shop in Dearborn, isn’t sure. A one-time Trump voter and once for Barack Obama, Kazan is leaning Republican again but thinks Harris is “worthy of the position” for president. “You’ll have to watch the debate and see which one makes more sense,” he said.
And Harris’ silence on the Middle East and foreign policy in general during the campaign has left some in Dearborn questioning the issue.
“We don’t know anything about her,” said Dow, a 72-year-old engineering professor who hasn’t yet decided who he’ll vote for. “What does she think about Gaza? What does she think about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? What does she think about our relationship with China and the overall economic situation? She has to tell her people.”
But Fatima is unsure about Harris, but has made it clear she will never vote for Trump: “I know he’s against the ceasefire and I know hate crimes will get worse,” she said.
