Trump and Harris at debate in Philadelphia
Trump and Harris at debate in PhiladelphiaREUTERS/Brian Snyder

The 2024 election for President of the United States was supposed to come down to which candidate was going to win Michigan. It did not.

Kamala Harris invested a tremendous amount of political capital in Michigan. It seemed that her whole campaign revolved around wooing the Muslim vote there. She made 39 visits to Michigan including a three city tour on the Sunday before the election. She criticized Israel every chance she could for inadvertently hurting civilians in an outright full fledged war which Israel was forced to fight after the massacre of October 7th. She blamed Israel instead of Hamas for the humanitarian aid which Israel was risking lives to send to the population of Gaza but was being stolen by Hamas terrorists. She talked of cutting military shipments to Israel while in the middle of a fight for its existence.

She was part of the Biden administration that indeed held back 2,000-pound bombs which Israel desperately needed to prosecute a war against a brutal enemy. She pushed for a cease fire in March of 2024 before Israel had even made significant headway. She absolutely made it a red line for Israel to attack Rafah.

Had Israel listened, Hamas would not have been degraded significantly and SINWAR would never have been brought to justice. The irony is that despite all of her efforts to win Michigan, she lost Michigan.

She did not lose Michigan because 100,000 Muslims boycotted the election, as was being put forward by the likes of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. The numbers don’t bear this out. There are 10 million people living in Michigan. It has 15 electoral votes. President Trump could have won the election without Michigan. He got 312 Electoral votes. He only needed 270. It turns out that Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral votes were much more important in his path to victory.

President Trump won Michigan by 82,000 votes. There are 129,225 Jews in Michigan. Although more Jews than ever voted for President Trump in this election, so far the reported percentage outside of New York and New Jersey is 31% (I firmly believe it is higher). That would mean 40,000 Jews voted in Michigan for President Trump. In a close race this carries enormous weight and could have made the difference.

Much has been written about the Muslim vote in Michigan. Kamala Harris received 22,000 fewer votes than Joe Biden in 2020. Most of this difference occurred in Dearborn where 60% of the Muslim population lives. In 2020 Biden got 31,000 votes. In 2024 Harris only got 15,000 votes. President Trump actually gained 5,000 votes in Dearborn. He went from 13,000 in 2020 to 18,000 now. There was certainly no evidence for a Muslim election boycott of 100,000.

It must be pointed out that President Trump won Michigan in 2016 by 10,000 votes. He did better in 2024 mostly because the major Michigan counties like Wayne County (850,000 votes) were nine points up for President Trump.

Kamala Harris’ pandering to the Muslim vote in Michigan backfired. President Trump’s strong pro-Israel view coupled with his leadership qualities prevailed. President Trump’s winning Michigan is a compelling irony in a landslide victory and a stunning rebuke to Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party.