(RNS) — Since Muslim Americans vocally opposed President Joe Biden’s embrace of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, who they would choose at the ballot box has been one of the most studied political questions, inside and outside the community.
Muslim Americans were credited with aiding President Donald Trump’s sweeping 2024 victory after many Muslims vowed to sit out the presidential vote or cast a third-party ballot over grievances with the Democratic Party’s position on the Israel-Hamas war.
But the idea that Muslim voters cost Vice President Kamala Harris the election is unfounded, according to a poll of Muslim Americans released Oct. 21. “Muslims were somehow really blamed for this election, and it just wasn’t the case,” said Saher Selod, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim research and education organization based in Michigan, which sponsored the survey. “It was a close election, but Trump won all of the swing states, and that you cannot put on this population. It’s not Muslims alone that did that.”
The survey makes clear, however, that the Democratic Party paid a price for ignoring voters opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza. Among Muslim Democrats, 45% of those who voted for Biden in 2020 shifted parties or skipped the presidential vote altogether.
ISPU’s poll found that 16% of those who voted for Biden in 2020 shifted to a third-party candidat …