Politics

Fellow Muslims keep asking me why I support Kamala Harris. Here’s what I say.

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

Fellow Muslims keep asking me why I support Kamala Harris. Here’s what I say.

The first Muslims to arrive in what became the United States of America were Black like me. They were brought here via the trans-Atlantic slave trade. These enslaved Africans were faithful Muslims praying in the U.S. colonies before Thomas Jefferson was even born. And they suffered, as all enslaved Africans suffered, through genocide and brutal and deadly oppression. Although there’s a mistaken belief that Muslims first arrived en masse in the United States with an influx of Arab and Pakistani immigrants in the 1960s, the history of Black Muslims, who were here before there was a country, is a reminder that while we may share the same faith as Muslims from the Middle East and South Asiawe have a different experience of America.

While we may share the same faith as Muslims from the Middle East and South Asia, we have a different experience of America.

These Black Muslim ancestors left rich histories and a legacy of fighting for what’s right. I am proud to have carried on this legacy throughout my career, most recently by founding the Black Muslim Leadership Council — a first-of-its-kind nonprofit dedicated to advancing justice and equity for Black American Muslims through policy advocacy, civic education, voter mobilization and leadership development. Our advocacy wing, the Black Muslim Leadership Council Fund, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaignand I, in my personal capacity, am doing the same.

Despite my consistent calls for a cease-fire in Gazaand despite my history of working with the Palestinian community in my native Philadelphia, my support of the vice president’s candidacy has led to accusations that I am ignoring the human rights catastrophe in Gaza and undermining the Palestinian cause. Despite my leadership in the Uncommitted Pennsylvania campaignwhich led to more than 60,000 voters using the write-in vote to protest President Joe Biden’s leadership; and despite my directly telling President Biden about the history of solidarity between Black Americans and Palestinians and the moral dilemma his candidacy presented, I have been repeatedly asked by other Muslims to defend my vote for Harris.

My parents converted to Islam in the early 1970s, finding a safe haven and a home alongside other Black American Muslims in a country that so often tried to reject them. This community is now my haven. My Pennsylvanian Muslim family is my foundation, and serving them is my way of life. Every day, I see the struggles facing my people, and I see the courage and resolve it takes to overcome and thrive.

Despite so many advancements, my community still suffers significant oppression. I have been harassed, targeted and doxxed by people throughout the country — including by other Muslims. My support of Vice President Harris has been attacked, as many have chosen not to support Harris, seeing her as an extension of President Biden, who has been widely criticized for his handling of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. My goal in my career is to advance policy for the American Muslim community at large, but with a focus on Black American Muslims.

I will continue to focus on the nuanced needs of my specific community because, in large part, no one else is focusing on us. This is how I honor the legacy of my father, a prominent imam who devoted his life to serving this same community. While I share many of the same goals and concerns as other American Muslims, I also am specifically dedicated to uplifting the needs of the Black American Muslim community.

My community cares deeply about the crisis in Gaza, as well as the suffering of Muslims in Sudan and its Darfur region Congo Yemen Syria Kashmir and China. We care about reproductive rights, particularly for people who have experienced sexual abuse, and for women who have died during childbirth — especially Black women, who die at much higher rates than other women in the United States. We care about economic opportunity, including the paths to establish generational wealth, which have for so long been denied to Black people, including Black Muslims. We care about public safety and ending the rampant gun violence that has led to the deaths of so many people, especially Black men.

Harris is the candidate who has most effectively supported the causes that are important to my community. Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, has shown in his track record and on the campaign trail that he will not support these causes.

I am specifically dedicated to uplifting the needs of the Black American Muslim community.

I have heard from many who say they’ll vote third-party to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the major party candidates, or who say they will not vote at all. As tantalizing as some of these third-party candidates may be, they are not a viable option. Other third-party candidates have deeply problematic and even dangerous stances on international relations, health care and immigration.

Not voting is not an option either. The threat that faces our country, and our world, is too great not to use the greatest gift of democracy: our vote. In its purest essence, politics is about strategy. This sometimes means having to make tough choices to achieve the best possible outcome for ourselves and our community. It would be nice to agree with each and every one of our chosen candidate’s decisions and platforms. But we do not have to do this to keep our democracy alive.

We have, on one hand, a candidate who fights for voter rights, reproductive rights and public safety. On the other, we have a candidate who seeks to consolidate power, threaten our constitutional freedoms and implement policies reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. We have a candidate who, as a Black and South Asian woman, understands personally the oppression faced by the most neglected of us and has overcome adversity to rise to a position of power, and we have a candidate who moved to ban Muslims from entering the country, has called majority Black nations, many of them with large Muslim populations, “s—hole countries,” and who bases his campaign on sowing division and hatred.

As I have already done, I will continue to advocate for the innocent people who are being killed in Gaza, as well as advocate for the other domestic needs of my community. I will also continue to tell Muslims asking me to defend my vote for Harris that I see her as not only the best chance for a cease-fire, but also the best chance we have to protect fundamental freedoms — for every one of us.

In this decision, and in my personal and professional career, I stand on the shoulders of the great Black American Muslim women and men who came before me — who fought through unspeakable traumas to build a better life for their descendants. I am proud to be part of this legacy. The fight continues now, as it has for centuries — and it will take each one of us committing to defending our freedoms to ensure that we will not go back.

The views represented in this article are the author’s own, given in her individual capacity and do not represent the positions of her associated institutions.

Salima Suswell

Salima Suswell is an award-winning community organizer and coalition builder. She is the founder and CEO of the Black Muslim Leadership Councila national nonprofit dedicated to uplifting the unique needs of Black American Muslims, and its 501(c)(4) advocacy wing, the Black Muslim Leadership Council Fund. She is also the CEO of Evolve Solutionsa government relations and community engagement firm based in Philadelphia.

Politics

Poll: Republicans’ gas price problem is even worse than it seems

Published

4 hours ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Gas prices are high. Americans think they’re even higher.

Three in five Americans believe gas prices in their area have risen by more than they actually have, according to an analysis of new results from The Blue Light News Poll. It’s those perceptions that candidates will be running against this fall.

Voters’ anxieties about fuel prices could give Democrats a boost ahead of the midterms, further strengthening the Democratic voting base and putting strains on the MAGA coalition as the increasingly unpopular war in Iran drags on. A plurality of Americans — 46 percent — say the change in gas prices will impact how they plan to vote come November.

Most voters overestimated the change in gas prices in their area, according to the analysis of polling and granular pricing data provided by OPIS, a Dow Jones company that tracks gas prices. That includes majorities of voters who supported President Donald Trump and also those who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Roughly one in four Americans say gas in their local area has risen by $3.00 or more. But no zip code has actually seen that degree of change on average in the year and a half since Trump took office, as of early July.

Frustrations over cost of living could be reinforcing existing negative views of the Trump administration: Harris voters are far more likely to overshoot the cost jumps than Trump voters, making it harder for Republicans to peel off Democratic voters.

And the analysis shows a fracture among Trump voters. Self-identified MAGA Republicans were more likely to underestimate cost increases than non-MAGA Republicans — another crack in the president’s winning coalition as Republicans scramble to hold it together for the midterms.

“It is a particularly tough dance that many Republican candidates will have to endure for the next three months,” said Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson. “How do you feel the pain of your voters without feeling the wrath of Donald Trump?”

What’s more, American’s perceptions do not quickly change even when prices do. The Blue Light News Poll asked about gas prices in both May, when they were near their peak, and July, when they had dipped.

The results were the same in both.

“President Trump and his energy team anticipated these temporary market disruptions, communicated them openly to the American people, and implemented an aggressive plan to mitigate any impacts,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “As the U.S. military degrades the terrorist Iranian regime’s ability to attack commercial vessels and disrupt the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices will plummet back to pre-conflict levels.”

Gas prices could swing votes

Americans’ frustrations with prices and the economy overall are changing how they say they will vote in the fall.

Of the 46 percent of Americans who said gas prices will have an impact on their vote, just under 40 percent said they are considering voting for a different party than they normally would, including 49 percent of MAGA Republicans and 57 percent of non-MAGA Republicans.

“Three quarters of the country is confronting higher gas prices and feeling it,” said longtime Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “That leaves them … very vulnerable to the economic pain and very vulnerable to the economic argument the Democrats are going to make.”

To better understand public perception of gas prices, The Blue Light News Poll asked Americans how the price of gas in their area had changed since Trump took office. Respondents could choose between buckets like “$1 to $2 higher per gallon,” “$1 to $2 lower per gallon,” or say prices had stayed roughly the same.

More than three-fourths said gas prices in their area have gone up.

Using OPIS data, Blue Light News compared each respondent’s answer against the actual average cost of regular gas in their zip code during the first week Trump was in office and the week prior to the July poll, which was conducted by the independent polling organization Public First from July 12 to July 15.

That comparison revealed the difference between the pain the American public is feeling and where actual gas prices stand — and, in particular, how that pain is expressed differently among Democrats and Republicans. Roughly 70 percent of Harris voters and 54 percent of Trump voters overestimated the increase in gas prices in their area, according to Blue Light News’s analysis.

“Democrats are highly motivated,” as a voting base, Marson said. “The longer the war goes on, probably the less motivated Republicans will be.”

The perception of higher gas prices is linked to how people see the economy — and who they blame for it.

Across the country, 57 percent of Americans say the cost of living is worse than they “can ever remember it being.” Those who overestimate gas price increases had more than twice the odds of agreeing with that statement, even after controlling for demographics and their 2024 vote.

Similarly, a plurality of Americans — 43 percent — blame Trump more than former President Joe Biden for the state of the economy overall. Those who overestimated their local increase in gas prices had nearly twice the odds of saying the same, compared with those who perceived the change in gas prices correctly or who underestimated the change.

It’s already affecting the battlegrounds

In the country’s most competitive races, Republicans will have to answer for the perceived cost pressures of rising gas prices more often than Democrats.

Thirteen of the most competitive districts have experienced gas price increases higher than the national average, according to Blue Light News’s analysis. Of those, nine are currently represented by Republicans.

In California’s 22nd District, where Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao will face off against progressive political newcomer Randy Villegas, average prices across the district had gone up $1.17 by early July — the third highest increase of any district, according to Blue Light News’s analysis.

Villegas said in an interview that he thought frustration over gas prices would mobilize turnout in the fall, driven by how the cost of gas is “tied to every other thing.”

“It’s the cost of gas when you’re driving to the grocery store, when you’re driving to, you know, see a doctor,” he said. Or, the cost of gas when driving 7 to 8 hours away to “go get cheaper health care.”

Valadao did not respond to requests for comment.

In Colorado’s 8th District, where gas prices have risen by $0.73 on average since Trump took office, Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans blamed local Democratic policies for increased costs more than the Iran war.

While “what’s happening halfway around the globe has some impact on global energy prices,” Evans said, high gas prices in the district are “a direct result of the local economic policies — the anti-energy policies — of the state Democrats who run the state of Colorado.”

But The Blue Light News Poll results from this month show voters don’t necessarily feel the same. Roughly 63 percent of Americans selected “the war with Iran” as the primary reason why gas prices have increased since Trump took office, including 59 percent of Trump voters and 70 percent of Harris voters.

By the middle of May, the average price of gas across the country reached its highest point of the Trump administration to date: $4.50 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In July, average prices dipped to $3.78 per gallon, the lowest average price since March.

Still, in both months, more than 75 percent of Americans said gas prices had gone up, Blue Light News’s polls show. And in both months, roughly 23 percent said prices had gone up by $3.00 or more.

This week, Trump said the upcoming midterms would not impact how he goes about fighting the war with Iran. “I can’t think about that having to do with this,” he said, referring to the elections. “I think people are very impressed.”

Politics

Capitol agenda: House GOP budget faces Senate reality check

Published

11 hours ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Capitol agenda: House GOP budget faces Senate reality check

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been frank about the rocky road the reconciliation effort faces and careful not to guarantee he’ll be successful…
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