President Joe Biden's policies in the Middle East are causing Arab American voters to shift away from the Democrats and toward the GOP, according to a new poll.
According to the Arab American Institute, which commissioned the survey, Republicans are now preferred more than Democrats among the demographic.
"This poll marks the first time in our 26 years of polling Arab American voters in which a majority did not claim to prefer the Democratic Party," the analysis of the poll said.
"In 2008 and 2016, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by two-to-one," the analysis continued. "In this poll, 32% of Arab Americans identified as Republican as opposed to just 23% who identified as Democrats. Independents continued a steady growth in party identification and overtook Democrats for the first time in October 2023."
The survey, which was conducted by John Zogby Strategies, comes in response to the nearly month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Biden's reelection hopes, already threatened by voter concern about the economy, could be dashed entirely by the movement of Arab American voters away from the Democratic Party.
"Support for President Biden in the upcoming election has plummeted among Arab Americans voters, dropping from 59% to 17%, a 42% decrease from 2020," the Arab American Institute said in a release. "Biden's approval rating has also dropped precipitously from 74% in 2020 to 29% in 2023, reflecting trends across the American public as a whole."
The nonprofit said that the poll's findings could impact races next year in key battleground states including Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Arab Americans account for "hundreds of thousands of voters."
The institute noted that two-thirds of Arab Americans have a negative view of Biden's response to the ongoing violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip and a strong majority believe the United States should demand a ceasefire in the conflict.
The survey was taken before the weekend protests in several major U.S. cities over the Biden administration's pro-Israel stance and failure to broker a ceasefire. Israeli forces have been preparing for a ground offensive as they continue to retaliate for the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and left hundreds wounded or taken hostage.
Protestors at a Washington, D.C., demonstration reportedly chanted, "Biden, Biden you can't hide, you signed off on genocide" and "We say no, Genocide Joe."
The Zogby poll backs up several other recent national surveys that show the incumbent Democrat president losing to former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
The poll was conducted Oct. 23-27 and surveyed 500 Arab Americans. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.