Democratic presidential candidate US Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Georgia.AFP
Brenda Abdelall would be tasked with shoring up support from a community frustrated with U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza.
Abdelall, Harris' pick for Arab American outreach, most recently served as senior counselor to the Department of Homeland Security's secretary. She joined the agency in January 2021, shortly after Trump left office, to be chief of staff for the department's civil rights office.
Muslim and Arab American votes could play a decisive role in deciding the outcome in battleground states like Michigan which has the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the country.
Accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention last week, Harris pledged to get a Gaza ceasefire done and ensure Palestinians realize their right to "dignity, security, freedom and self-determination."
But there was outrage among pro-Palestinian delegates that their request for a speaker spot at the convention was rejected.
The group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz said the decision sent a "terrible message" and announced it was disbanding and withdrawing its support from the campaign.
Harris, who has vowed not to be silent about the suffering of Palestinians, recently met with members of the national "Uncommitted" movement that led the charge against Biden during the Democratic primary process, when more than 100,000 voters cast their ballot "uncommitted" instead of Biden, who stepped aside as candidate on July 21.
Two weeks ago, Harris's campaign hired Afghan American lawyer Nasrina Bargzie to lead outreach to Muslim voters.
Bargzie worked in Harris’ White House office until July as a policy adviser on Muslim, Arab, and Gaza-related issues, as well as reproductive rights, voting, and democracy, the campaign official.
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