Biden’s support among Arab-Americans plummets to 17% after backing Israel’s war on Hamas: poll
President Biden’s level of backing among Arab-Americans has plunged more than 40 percentage points from 2020 as the commander-in-chief has supported Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, a new poll shows.
The survey by John Zogby Strategies, commissioned by the Arab American Institute, found just 17.4% of Arab American voters say they would pull the lever for Biden, 80, if the﷽ presidential election were held today.
By contrast, 40% of respondents said they would vote for former President Donald Trump, 13.7% said they would support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3.8 said they would support far-left candidate Cornel West, and 25.1% said they weren’t sure whom they would back.
In October 2020, the same survey showed Biden beating Trump 59% to 35% among Arab American voters, who constitute a sizable voting bloc in key battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The poll also showed 32% of Arab Americans identified as Republicans, 31% called themselves independents, and just 23% identified as Democrats — the first time in the institute’s 26 years of polling Arab American voters that a majority did not claim to prefer the Democratic Party.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (66%) said they had a negative attitude toward Biden, a near-complete reversꦇal from October 2020, when 74% of Arab American voters said they had a positive view toward the Democr🅠at.
Asked about Biden’s job performance, 77% of Arab American voters rated it as “fair” or “poor,” with only 20% calling it “excellent” or “good.”
Two-thirds (67%) of respondents also disapproved of Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, with a similar number (68%) opposing the US sending military aid to the Jewish state and the same percentage saying Washington should push for a cease-fire.
“We do not believe that a cease-fire is the right answer right now,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House Monday. “We believe that a cease-fire right now benefits Hamas, and Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now as — as Israel continues to — to prosecute their operations against Hamas leadership.
“What we have said should be considered and explored are temporary localized humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get to specific populations and maybe even to help with the evacuation of people that want to get out, move more to the south,” Kirby added. “We do support that. We do not support a cease-fire at this time.”
While the poll found 67% of respondents were conce🐈rned about the Middle East war triggering a rise in antisemitism in America, even more (78%) said they were concerned 🎃about anti-Arab bigotry and 45% said they feared for their personal safety.
Like Biden, Trump has been a stalwart backer of Israel. He’s also alienated Arab Americans in the past, including with for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
The 77-year-old 45th president recently re-upped an offshoot of that pitch earlier this month, calling for a ban on migrants entering the US “from terror-plagued countries.”
There are roughly 3.7 million Americans whꦜo have roots from an Arab nation, the institute estimates.
Some progressives such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have sounded the alarm about support for ✨Bidenꦛ eroding among Arab Americans.
Biden has against Palestinians and the brutal murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois earlier this month.
♎The poll surveyed 500 Arab Americans between Oct. 23 and 27 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
More than 1,400 people, inclu🅰ding 33 Americans, were killed in a surp💮rise attack by Hamas on southern Israel Oct. 7.
