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US elections: Why Muslim votes matter the most in Florida?

SHAFAQNA- Hawzah News Agency : “Democratic Party’s ground game is much stronger, I think we’ve learned from the past and we’re not leaving anything to chance” co-founder of Muslim Delegates Nadia Ahmed says. With two weeks remaining before the US presidential election, the Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden continues to lead in nationwide polls but many observers say he is “not out of the woods” yet. A handful of states where Biden and his rival Trump have similar levels of support among voters will probably decide the fate of the election and Florida is the largest swing state.

Political pundits predict Florida’s 29 electoral votes will be decisive and a historical look also proves how the past three elections were won with razor-thin margins. TRT World spoke to Florida Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate Nadia Ahmad on why the Muslim vote in Florida is important. Ahmed, who is also the co-director of Muslims for Biden Voter Mobilization Strategy, says that last week there were over one million ballots that were cast by registered Democrats versus six-hundred or so for the Republicans.

Florida’s Secretary of State reported the following statistics on number of registered voters by party on August 31, 2020 where the early voting has started this Monday and will continue for the next two weeks:

Democrat: 5,203,795

Republican: 5,020,199

Independents: 3,653,046

Third Party: 188,587

“Democratic Party’s ground game is much stronger, I think we’ve learned from the past and we’re not leaving anything to chance so even among the Muslim community – who were historically decisive in the 2000 election with George Bush – where they all voted for Bush, and again in 2016 a lot of people set out the election because they weren’t inspired by the candidate and now they’re seeing that non-engagement is not an option anymore, it’s not something that can be left off the table,” Ahmed said. “You have not only candidates that are from the Muslim community, you also have a desire from among the Muslim community to be a part of the election.” Ahmed formed Muslim Delegates Coalition with California delegate Hanieh Jodat Barnes and they have given special focus to Florida.

“We set out a 50 state voter mobilization effort that not just focus on anywhere across the country but set out to focus just on Florida – We also looked at all 67 counties in Florida in terms of data analysis of Muslim communities in Florida; where Muslims are voting, where their population centres are, we isolated about three counties in Florida that Pinellas County, Duval County and Seminole County where I’m from, these three counties have significant Muslim populations, significant Asian populations, and they can be enough actually to swing the whole state. These three counties, if they swing blue it will swing the whole state,” Ahmed added.

“Seminole County has been a red county since 1950 but as a result of increasing population, and migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida after hurricane Maria demographics have kinda shifted. There is a strong possibility that these three counties will shift. Duval is where Jacksonville is located, Pinellas is where St. Petersburg is located and Seminole County in Senford which is actually the home of Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of Trayvon Martin. We are starting to see more development and coalitions not only between Muslim Americans but also Latinos and African Americans and other immigrant groups and I think that is really what’s going to be decisive in the upcoming election in terms of the role Muslims will play in the Florida election”.

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