Islam, who has lived in Philadelphia since the 1970s, has voted in every election since she was 18, almost always for Democrats. She picked President Biden over Donald Trump in 2020, and even volunteered at a polling place. But she said she cannot fathom punching a ballot for Biden again, not with more than 33,000 dead in Gaza, many of them fellow Muslims.
“The economy, the crime rate. I want to cry every time I go to the gas station,” Islam said in an interview, ticking off the things that are on her mind as she mulls voting in November. “It’s just a whole bunch of stuff that’s going on. It’s disappointing. But, of course, this war is at the top of my list.”
As the Gaza war enters its seventh month, some Black Americans say Biden’s handling of the conflict makes them question whether he deserves a second term, according to interviews with nearly two dozen voters, opinion leaders and activists working through a political and moral conundrum in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
For some, the conflagration 6,000 miles away has already changed their vote, edging out domestic concerns such as the economy, inflation and crime. Others say that the war in the Middle East, which has already cost thousands of lives and has a region on the brink of famine, mirrors other tragedies afflicting people of color — and that Biden’s support for what they see as a moral disaster should have consequences at the ballot box.
Still others see the biggest threat as something else entirely: another Trump presidency.
Where these voters ultimately land could play an outsize role in who occupies the White House next year. Pennsylvania is one of a handful of battleground states that both Republicans and Democrats see as pivotal to winning the presidency. In 2020, Biden won the state by just over 80,000 votes, including a 4-to-1 ratio in heavily Black Philadelphia. But there are signs that the coalition that elected him is fragmenting.
In a nod to the importance of the state and its largest, most diverse city, Biden has been to Philadelphia more than 20 times as president — more than anywhere else except his hometown of Wilmington. Biden is spending most of this week in Pennsylvania: two days in Scranton, where he was partially raised, a day in Pittsburgh and Thursday in Philadelphia.
But even while he visits their city, some Black Philadelphians are focused on how his policies are playing out half a world away.
“I want the president to get it right because it’s right. That’s the first reason, but beyond that, there is a political ramification if he does not get it right,” said the Rev. Mark Tyler, the senior pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church, who is planning to attend the Democratic National Convention this summer. He said he has lost count of the number of conversations he has had with parishioners about the Middle East conflict.
“And to think that this [conflict] is not going to have an impact on Black voters in particular, who connect with this story in a way that maybe other Americans cannot — it would be a mistake to think that it won’t be a problem going into November,” Tyler said.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas militants rampaged through the Israel-Gaza border fence and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. In response, Israel commenced a military campaign that has devastated much of the enclave while severely restricting humanitarian aid.
Complicating matters, last weekend Iran launched a salvo of missiles and drones into Israel in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria. Most of the weapons were shot down by Israel and its allies, but the episode has raised fears of a broader conflict.
Supporters of Israel reject the notion that its incursion into Gaza is racist or mirrors American racial dynamics. Rather, they say, the 150-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict is rooted in a territorial dispute between two groups with historical ties to the same land. The country’s backers also note that Jews themselves have been victims throughout history, and giving them a safe haven is a central reason for Israel’s existence.
But as the Gaza war has raged on, Biden and other Democrats have faced protesters at virtually all of their public events, over the Palestinian death toll. In Scranton on Tuesday, after Biden gave a campaign speech on tax policy, the president’s motorcade was met by protesters chanting, “Biden Biden, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” and “Welcome home, Scranton Joe — make sure Gazans have a home also.” Demonstrators also shouted at Biden as he visited his childhood home.
In several states, Muslims and Arab Americans have organized movements urging members of their communities — as well as people of color, liberals and others dissatisfied with Biden’s support of Israel — to choose “uncommitted” in Democratic primaries, an effort that notched more than 100,000 votes in Michigan.
For seven months, organizers in Philadelphia have been stoking a similar movement in advance of Pennsylvania’s April 23 Democratic primary. They contend that Israel’s military onslaught resembles other racist oppression that called for a global moral response: Jim Crow in the American South, or apartheid in South Africa.
That sentiment has resulted in a growing link between Black and Arab American activists.
Black Americans “have been struggling through this for many, many years,” said Osama Al-Qasem, who directs the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “They understand what we’re going through, and therefore they empathize and sympathize and support our struggle, as well. So the built-in relationship becomes a hub we leverage.”
Biden has made racial justice a central tenet of his administration, and as his reelection campaign intensifies he has highlighted the strides Black Americans have made during his presidency. Putting Trump back in the White House, he and his surrogates argue, would stymie that progress.
Biden has stressed that he needs Black voters to help put him in the White House again. But recent polls have shown declining support among the demographic since 2020, nationally and in battleground states that will probably swing the election.
About 9 in 10 Black voters in Pennsylvania and other key states picked Biden over Trump in 2020, according to exit polls and comparable surveys, but a March Wall Street Journal poll of voters in seven swing states found that 68 percent of Black registered voters would “definitely” or “probably” vote for Biden in the 2024 election, while 20 percent said they were likely to vote for Trump. Numerous national and state polls this year have found similar results.
Biden’s campaign announced in August that it was spending $25 million to reach key voters in battleground states, including what it called the largest and earliest investment in Black media for a reelection campaign in history. Those ads highlight Biden’s efforts to close the racial wealth gap and note that he has presided over the lowest Black unemployment rate in history.
In addition, Biden launched a pair of ads last month aimed at Black voters in battleground states, touting his administration’s pandemic relief checks and its successful effort to cap the price of insulin at $35 a month.
“At both the national and state level, this campaign is committed to engaging with Black voters earlier and more often than any other campaign to date,” Kellan White, a senior adviser in Pennsylvania for Biden-Harris 2024 and a Philadelphia native, said in a statement.
Biden’s defenders say critics have a dangerously myopic view of the conflict in the Middle East, and that efforts to turn Black voters away from Biden will play directly into the hands of Trump, who would be far worse for both Black Americans and Palestinians.
Biden is handling the Gaza war as best he can, they add. “You can’t solve the problem of the Middle East as a purist or idealist,” said Marshall Mitchell, a pastor at Salem Baptist Church of Abington, a Black church in Montgomery County, Pa. “They don’t understand the power of quiet diplomacy. And they’re going to force a hand, and then you won’t be able to turn Pennsylvania back.”
At the mosque and community center where Islam voiced her electoral concerns, many who came to learn about the Palestinian cause acknowledged that it was just one of the issues that would affect Black voters’ decisions.
Salima Suswell, leader of the Black Muslim Leadership Council and one of the organizers of the cross-cultural event, said she feels a connection to the suffering of those in Gaza who share her faith. But she said she also understands that it may be difficult for people to sublimate their own self-interest to make a political point, even on such a searing issue.
“Some folks feel that there are domestic issues that require priority, like gun violence in a city like Philadelphia, where Black Muslim children are being murdered,” Suswell said. “So many people feel like we need a cease-fire right here in our city. And to some level, there is some frustration also with people who feel that Trump is a huge threat to our community.”
Suswell was one of a handful of Muslim leaders invited to the White House this month to discuss the war in Gaza and other issues. She has also hosted events in her hometown aimed at helping Black Philadelphians understand the plight of Palestinians and what the community can do to influence U.S. policy.
Others are disenchanted with the notion that they must choose between two parties whose policies toward Israel may not be substantively different.
“I think there’s a recognition that neither the Democrats nor Republicans are really representing our interests. They’re not representing Black interests. They’re not representing the interests of poor and working-class folks,” said Melina Abdullah, who recently became the running mate of third-party presidential candidate Cornel West.
In 2015, she and other founding members of Black Lives Matter issued a statement of solidarity with Palestinians. “We don’t have to take a lesser-of-two-evils approach,” Abdullah said. “Lesser of two evils is still evil.”
In contrast, Rahima Abdullah, 67, a lifelong Philadelphia resident, said the events of the past six months have not deterred her desire to vote for Biden. Voting “uncommitted” or staying home “is a vote for Trump,” she added.
“I just feel like we’ve got to do it,” she said of voting for Biden. “And then we’ve got to pray.”
Scott Clement and Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington contributed to this report.
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