How Jill Stein’s V.P. Pick Could Haunt Kamala

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is trying to draw the support of Arab and Muslim American voters with a Palestinian American running mate.

NBC News reports that Stein has been looking for a vice presidential candidate to take advantage of the frustrations from Muslim and Arab Americans over Democratic Party support for Israel in its brutal war on Gaza. 

Since the start of the war in October, President Biden has given unequivocal support to Israel, costing the Democratic Party support from Muslim and Arab Americans, who not only are a key part of its base but also make up a large number of voters in Michigan, a battleground state. Calls for a cease-fire have not brought one about, and the war has stretched for 10 months and caused a massive humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Stein has spoken with three prominent Arab Americans as potential candidates: Abed Ayoub, the executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and activist; and Abdullah Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, who, at age 34, is constitutionally ineligible to be vice president. 

Zahr, who lives in Dearborn, said that he was initially open to voting for Vice President Kamala Harris but lost enthusiasm after she “disrespectfully” shut down protesters who interrupted her at a Detroit campaign rally, and after an aide said that she would not support an arms embargo against Israel.

“She could have said, ‘I hear you, we’re going to address this, and if you want it to get better, elect me instead of Donald Trump,’” Zahr told NBC. “But instead she suggested we want to help get Trump elected … as if we owe her something and she doesn’t owe us.”

Zahr is one individual, but there are likely many other Muslim and Arab Americans who were dismayed by Harris’s response to the protesters and who would like to see a change in U.S. policy toward Israel, including an end to weapons shipments. If Stein makes a big overture by putting an Arab or Palestinian American on her ticket, it could draw away enough voters to tip the balance in Michigan.

Plus, it’s not just Muslims and Arab Americans who care about Palestine: Young Americans of all backgrounds have seen the destruction and violence and want things to change. Can Harris convince them that she will end the war and change policy, or will a third-party candidate like Stein get their votes?