BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Throughout this election cycle, Michigan, with its sizable Jewish and Arab American populations, has highlighted a delicate situation that candidates from both parties have found themselves in amid Israel’s war against Hezbollah and Hamas.

Both Democrats and Republicans are trying to appeal to the pro-Israel community and to Arab and Muslim voters who, in some cases, have expressed hostility toward Israel, with vote margins in each community potentially helping to decide the outcome of the election, especially in Michigan, where both the presidential and Senate races are expected to be close.

Appealing to Arab American voters who may be anti-Israel is something of a departure for Republicans, who have long characterized themselves as stalwart backers of the Jewish state, contrasting themselves with a Democratic Party that includes an outspoken faction of far-left, anti-Israel voices.

Former President Donald Trump appeared this weekend at an event in Dearborn, Mich., which has the largest Arab population in the country, at a restaurant owned by a man who has claimed “Palestine is being erased.” Prior to the visit, Trump said he would “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon.”.

Trump has also praised Mayor Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck, Mich., who endorsed the former president in September; Ghalib led the city to pass a measure to boycott and divest from Israel, and liked antisemitic social media posts.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) appeared this weekend at a get-out-the-vote rally with the United Auto Workers supporting down-ballot Democratic candidates, while refusing to explicitly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The UAW is supporting Harris. 

The anti-Israel “Uncommitted” movement has also been running anti-Trump ads in the state, even though Harris and the Democratic Party have rejected the group’s key demands, including for a speaking spot at this summer’s Democratic convention.

The aggressive Republican outreach to voters and leaders in the Arab and Muslim communities with vastly different views on Israel than the GOP orthodoxy has raised questions about how much of that outreach will translate into policy, if Trump is elected. Recent comments by Trump have raised red flags for some in the pro-Israel world.

Speaking to reporters after a Republican Jewish Coalition event in the Detroit suburbs last week, Mike Rogers, the GOP Senate nominee in Michigan, said that he’s aiming to appeal to Arab and Muslim voters who understand that he and Republicans want to help Palestinians “when this is over.”

“We’re having constructive dialogue,” Rogers said. “They may not like the fact that I’m pro-Israel, but they also understand that I’m going to be for them getting a better life, having hope, giving them some hope for a better future for their kids, who are in Gaza today.”

Rogers said that his campaign is trying to find Arab and Muslim voters who aren’t voting solely based on the situation in the Middle East, who don’t support terrorism against Israel and “understand that there’s a lot of really important issues that we’re going to have to deal with, for their families.”

Rogers said that he has won support from some of those voters on issues such as taxes and transgender women competing in women’s sports — consistent with the fiscal and social conservatism among many in the Arab-American community. 

“I had a group of Muslim leaders the other day tell me it’s killing them financially, but they cannot send their kids to the local school because of those kinds of issues,” Rogers continued, referring to the transgender issue.

Rogers also insisted during the RJC event that he is not compromising on his support for Israel in his outreach to Arab and Muslim voters.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Jewish Insider he’s met with Ghalib, the Hamtramck mayor, and other Arab leaders and made the case that Iran is the true “common foe” of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

“The argument I make to Arab Americans and Chaldean Christians and the entire melting pot here in Michigan is that you need a strong American president to neuter the influence that Iran’s had over Syria, over Lebanon, over Yemen,” Graham said. “If you have family in that part of the world, you come from that part of the world, it would be good to basically have your ancestral homeland free of Iranian influence.”

Graham said he sees that as a cause that can bring Jewish and Arab and Muslim Americans together.

“If you’re wanting to have a hopeful life for people in Lebanon, in Syria, in Yemen, you better have a president that can put Iran in a box,” Graham said. “If you want to have a secure Israel, you better have a president that can put Iran in a box.”

Rogers said he’s making a similar case to Arab voters that anger should be directed toward Iran rather than Israel.

“The only ones who don’t want peace are the folks in Tehran,” Rogers said. “And what we found is we’re all kind of coalescing around this understanding that we must put Iran back in a box.”

Graham said that Arab leaders he met appeared to share his view that regional normalization with Israel and an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict would be a positive step for the region and the best chance for rebuilding a positive, Hamas-free future in Gaza.

“The Arab world thinks that genocide is being committed against the Palestinian people by Israel. Israel believes that their neighbors were Nazis. The whole point of the attack is to inflame the populations, and it’s worked to a certain extent, and the leadership is going to have to get beyond that,” Graham argued.

He also emphasized that none of the Arab leaders with whom he met expressed a desire to eliminate Israel.

Asked at a campaign event with Rogers about the Trump campaign’s work with anti-Israel community leaders, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) emphasized that there’s room for disagreement in the GOP — a shift from what was previously a largely monolithic pro-Israel stance in the party.

“I can say that there are a number of Arab leaders who have recently endorsed President Trump, including mayors in the state of Michigan,” Scott said. “This is about Americans who believe in common sense. The Republican Party is a big tent, big enough to disagree on some issues, as long as we agree on who we want to lead the country.”

Adrian Hemond, a Michigan political strategist, told JI that he’s anticipating some improvement for Trump among Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan, especially outside of Dearborn, “but I don’t expect the change to be huge.”

He said that some of the shift can likely be attributed to the war in Gaza, but also linked it to more socially conservative views among newer immigrants from Yemen and Syria, on subjects including LGBTQ issues and adult-themed books in school libraries.

Hemond said that he also anticipates third-party candidates such as Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West will overperform in some areas with significant Arab and Muslim voters among voters unwilling to vote for Trump or Harris.

But he said that Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is making a bid for Senate, appears positioned to perform well in those communities — she has consistently run ahead of the Democratic presidential ticket (both Harris and President Joe Biden) and won Dearborn in the Democratic primary, after investing in introducing herself to that community.

Robert Schostak, a former MIchigan GOP chair and an RJC board member, told JI that Trump needs to “show that he’s willing to reach across the aisle, show that he’s willing to work with Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans and anyone who is pro-resolving this issue.”

He downplayed the significance of the Hamtramck BDS resolution, arguing that, “what’s more important is that [Trump] proves to the broader community that he can talk to anyone, and that he’s anxious to talk to anyone that’s going to stand for, what the Trump administration which should stand for, which is supporting of Israel.”

Schostak said it’s not an issue for him if Ghalib does not agree with the former president on every issue, such as Israel. He said that he and the RJC also don’t necessarily agree with everything Trump supports, but it comes down to “the greater good, versus Kamala.”

He said that people who aren’t supportive of Israel are “certainly welcome to be in the [Republican] tent” but “the reality is that the support for Israel is unconditional under President Trump, or in the platform of the RNC.”

Schostak called Democrats’ rhetoric on Israel “far more concerning,” adding that he believes Trump’s views on the subject are clear and “unconditional” from his first term in office.

“Within the family, whether it’s the Democrat family or the Republican family, you’ve got people on various ends of the spectrum,” Schostak said. “When it comes to being pro-Israel and supportive of Israel, just because [Trump has] included the Hamtramck mayor doesn’t mean that it’s changing his position.”

In the past, Republicans have argued that Democrats are untrustworthy on Jewish issues because they haven’t consistently shunned anti-Israel and antisemitic voices in their party.

Schostak further argued that, because Israel plays such an important role in fighting terrorism, ensuring a safe Middle East and advancing technology and the economy, Republicans do not risk, in the coming years, succumbing to divisions over Israel policy like Democrats have, even if they allow anti-Israel leaders into their coalition.

Rank-and-file pro-Israel Republicans who attended the RJC event with Rogers also said that Republicans’ outreach to Arab and Muslim communites doesn’t concern them.

Dan Saltsman, a longtime Jewish Republican, said he didn’t believe that Israel was the top issue for the Arab and Muslim communities to which the party is trying to appeal.

“Some of them aren’t [anti-Israel] and those that are, it’s not their first issue because, as Sen. Graham said and soon-to-be Sen. Rogers said, they respect strength,” Saltsman said, arguing that the issue can largely be defused if Republicans are clear that their support is non-negotiable. “If you wiffle-waffle on it, then that will create war. That weakness will create a vacuum. If you create peace through strength and you keep at it unapologetically, then there won’t be war. President Trump has demonstrated that, same with [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Dorothy Gay, a pro-Israel Catholic conservative who attended the RJC event, echoed Graham and Rogers in saying she thinks conservatives can find common ground with Arab and Muslim voters in opposition to Iran as key threat in the region. 

Ezra Drissman, another longtime Jewish Republican who lives in North Park, Mich., told JI that it’s “different” to see Rogers and other Republicans making a play for Arab and Muslim voters, and that he appreciated Rogers’s assurances that it won’t impact his Israel policy.

“In order to win, you are going to have to reach across to people who don’t like you. I think that’s one of the things that Trump has been able to do for a long time,” Drissman said, adding that he has no concerns that Republicans will shift their positions on Israel.