PHILADELPHIA — The Gaza war has left Muslim voters in Pennsylvania divided. The Biden administration’s support for Israel has turned away voters from Vice President Harris as former President Donald Trump and the Green Party seek to make inroads in the community.
There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Pennsylvania, including roughly 300,000 to 400,000 in the Philadelphia area. A large Black American Muslim community and immigrant populations from the Arab world and various parts of Africa are included in these numbers, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
US President Joe Biden defeated Trump by just around 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania in 2020. According to the Associated Press, 64% of Muslim voters in the United States went for Biden in 2020, compared with 36% for Trump. A total 124,875 Muslim voters cast ballots in the 2020 election out of 167,618 registered Muslim voters, according to the Muslim civic organization Emgage.
A CAIR September poll of Muslim voters in Pennsylvania found 37% support for Harris, 25% for Green Party candidate Jill Stein and 8% support for Trump, with 19% being undecided. The rest of those polled either support other third-party candidates or do not plan on voting.
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