Michigan Mayor Amer Ghalib says Republican Party is ‘the right choice’ despite some disagreements.
The mayor of the only U.S. city with an all-Muslim government has endorsed former President Donald Trump for November’s presidential election.
Amer Ghalib, who leads the city of Hamtramck in the swing state of Michigan, said Sunday he thought the Republican candidate was “the right choice” despite their disagreements on some issues.
“President Trump and I may not agree on everything, but I know he is a man of principle,” Ghalib said in a Facebook post.
“Even though everything seems to be going well, he may or may not win the election and become the 47th President of the United States, but I believe he is the right choice for this critical time. I will not regret my decision, regardless of the outcome, and I am prepared to accept the consequences.”
“Let us now let the caravan begin its journey,” Ghalib added. “This is just the starting point.”
Hamtramck, which has a population of about 28,000, made headlines in 2021 when it became the first U.S. city to elect an all-Muslim city council and a Muslim mayor.
Ghalib, who immigrated to the United States from Yemen at age 17, made the announcement just less than a week after meeting Trump at a town hall meeting in Flint, Michigan.
Ghalib told The Detroit News last week that the two men discussed the concerns of Arab and Muslim Americans and that Trump asked for his support.
Michigan is one of seven key states expected to determine the outcome of the November contest between Trump and his Democratic Party rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Opinion polls suggest a tight race between Trump and Harris, both nationally and in battlegrounds like Michigan.
In the most recent average of polls compiled by The New York Times, Harris leads Trump in Michigan by 50 percent to 47 percent.
Trump won Michigan in the 2016 election against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, becoming the first Republican to win the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
President Joe Biden returned the state to Democratic hands in 2020, defeating Trump by a margin of about 150,000 votes.
Anger among American Muslims over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza has become a concern for Democrats as they face tight races in key swing states.
In a poll released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in August, only 12% of Michigan Muslim voters expressed support for Harris, 18% for Trump and 40% for Jill Stein of the Green Party.
