Abdullah Hammoud was the top vote-winner in the first round of the race for mayor of Dearborn, a Michigan town known as the 'capital of Arab America'
By Ali Harb
(MIDDLE EAST EYE) The capital of Arab America will get a chance to elect its first Arab-American mayor in November.
Michigan state Representative Abdullah Hammoud was the top vote-winner in the mayoral primary in Dearborn on Tuesday, moving to the final round of voting.
Dearborn, a Detroit suburb of 95,000 people, has one of the largest Arab and Muslim communities in the country. It also has a chequered history with racism.
If he wins in November, Hammoud will hold a position once occupied by Orville Hubbard, an advocate for racial segregation, who led Dearborn from 1942 to 1978.
When Hammoud was born in 1990, Michael Guido, who in 1985 issued campaign leaflets calling for the “Arab problem” to be addressed, was mayor of the city; he held the seat until his death in 2006. Guido later repaired his relationship with the Arab community.
“We have come a long way from the anti-Black racism of Orville Hubbard and the anti-Arab politics of Mike Guido,” said Sally Howell, director of the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Local issues
Hammoud was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2016, and has gained a reputation as a progressive voice in state politics.
He endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential primaries and previously backed Abdul El-Sayed, a left-wing Egyptian-American doctor, for governor.
