Billboards and mailers bombard Arab-American voters in the Detroit area before Election Day

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud released some basic facts on social media this week.

“Dearborn is not Dearborn Heights – they are two different cities,” he wrote on X.

“I have not supported any presidential candidate. Be careful what you read,” read the rest of Hammoud’s message.

Hammoud’s message is an example of the flood of messages, sometimes inaccurate, spread on social media, texts, billboards and mailers about Metro Detroit’s Muslim and Arab-American community in the final days of the presidential election, several said community members. That includes a billboard ad paid for by a conservative political action committee reportedly funded by billionaire Elon Musk.

“It’s very misleading and mischaracterizes what’s actually happening,” Hammoud said.

Hammoud, a Democrat, has refused to support Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, just as he previously refused to support President Joe Biden before withdrawing from the 2024 presidential campaign. Hammoud and Muslims from other areas and Arab-Americans have expressed their anger and expressed despair over Biden’s inability to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and continue aid to Israel.

That has led to some expressions of support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including from Dearborn Heights’ Muslim mayor, Bill Bazzi, who spoke at Trump’s Saturday rally in Novi. The result has been numerous erroneous social media posts, mostly from pro-Trump commentators, claiming that Hammoud supports Trump.

“Even my most conservative friends… despise him,” Hammoud said.

Several Arab-American residents said they have been inundated with text messages and mailers over the past two weeks suggesting that Harris supports Israel and that her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish. Some pointed to an electronic billboard on Telegraph Road in Dearborn Heights that declares Harris and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin, who is Jewish, as “more focused on arming Israel than helping your family.”

Slotkin has called for a negotiated ceasefire in Gaza that would include the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and allow aid flows to civilians. She has opened the door to placing conditions on future aid if Israel does not allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Her Republican opponent Mike Rogers said there should be no ceasefire without the release of hostages and accused Iran of fueling violence in the Middle East.

Another recent billboard noted that Harris’ husband is Jewish. That billboard was sponsored by a national political action committee called the Future Coalition, which organized in July, according to Federal Election Commission data. The PAC filed its first quarterly fundraising disclosure earlier this month, showing $1.2 million in expenses and just one contribution: $3 million from a nonprofit called Building America’s Future, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has consistently supported GOP promotes candidates and causes.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have reported that Musk is a major contributor to Building America’s Future.

At the same location in Dearborn Heights, the electronic billboard shows several advertisements, and one advertisement depicts the Republican presidential candidate proclaiming “Trump for Peace.” That ad was sponsored by Arab Americans for a Better America.

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