Republican caucuses? Iowa’s Arabs and Muslims are more concerned with Gaza

Des Moines, Iowa – National media, political pundits and United States presidential hopefuls all converged on the state capital of Des Moines this week, as it played host to the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses.

But just miles down the road from where Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis traded barbs on Wednesday night, local businessman Mohamed Ali was unfazed.

“Honestly, we don’t care about them,” Ali told media, blowing smoke from his hookah pipe in a packed cafe outside Des Moines. “With all the debates, they all fight and compete over who supports Israel more.”

While indifferent towards the race for the Republican nomination, the 46-year-old Palestinian American father of three said one thing was certain: He would not back Democratic President Joe Biden for a second term in November.

Israel’s war in Gaza had been a turning point for Ali, who previously supported Biden in 2020. 

Dressed in a white button-up shirt with a light blue blazer over it, he alternated between anger and stoicism — voicing rage over Biden’s support of Israel and apathy towards the 2024 elections.

“The Arab and the Muslim community, they are not voting for Biden. I did not talk to a single person who said he’s going to vote for Biden,” Ali told media, as Arabic pop music blared in the background of the cafe.

He added that even the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House was not enough to spur Arab Americans to vote Democrat in the presidential race.

Ali was born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugee parents. He studied in Tunisia before moving to New York and ending up in Iowa — the rural, sparsely populated state where the first Republican primary contest will take place on Monday.