Billboards, mailers bombard Detroit area Arab American voters before Election Day

DETROIT — Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud took to social media this week to point out some basic facts.

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

“I have not endorsed any presidential candidate. Careful what you read,” the rest of Hammoud’s message said.

Hammoud’s message is an example of the flurry of messages, sometimes inaccurate, being 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 members of the community said. That includes a billboard ad paid for by a conservative political action committee reportedly funded by billionaire Elon Musk.

“It's very misleading, and it is mischaracterized what's actually happening,” Hammoud said.

Hammoud, a Democrat, has refused to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, just as he refused to earlier endorse President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign. Hammoud and other area Muslims and Arab Americans have expressed anger and despair over Biden’s inability to secure a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and continued aid to Israel.

That has led to some endorsements for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including those from the Muslim mayor of Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who spoke at Trump’s Saturday rally in Novi. The result has been numerous erroneous social posts, mainly by pro-Trump commentators, that the Hammoud is endorsing Trump.

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

Several Arab American residents said in the past two weeks they have inundated with text messages and mailers that point out Harris supports Israel and 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 cease-fire in Gaza that includes the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and lets aid flow to civilians. She has opened the door to putting conditions on future aid if Israel doesn’t allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Her Republican opponent Mike Rogers said there should be no cease-fire without the release of hostages and blamed Iran for fomenting the Middle East violence.

Another recent billboard noted Harris' husband is Jewish. That billboard was sponsored by a national political action committee named the Future Coalition, which was organized in July, according to Federal Election Commission records. The PAC submitted its first quarterly fundraising disclosure earlier this month and showed $1.2 million in spending and only one contribution: $3 million from a nonprofit called Building America's Future, a Washington, D.C.-based group that's consistently promoted GOP candidates and causes.

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

At the same Dearborn Heights location, the electronic billboard displays various ads, and one ad depicts the Republican presidential candidate and declares "for peace vote Trump." That ad was sponsored by the Arab Americans for a Better America.