The Emerging Arab Vote in Congressional Districts

By Jay O’Callaghan and RJ Galliano

The exploding Middle Eastern-North African (MENA) Census Bureau racial population category (if implemented by the Trump administration and Congress) should mean an increase by 2022 of more than the two Muslim Democrats now serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. More than two thirds of Arab Americans live in just ten states: California, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Metropolitan Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York are home to one-third of their population. So, their voting power goes far beyond its present low percentage of the national population.

Arab Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S.

The Arab American Institute (AAI) estimates that more than “3.7 million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country,” while the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates that there are almost two million Americans who claim Arab ancestry. This group has “more than doubled since the Census first measured ethnic origins in 1980 and is among the fastest growing Arab diaspora populations in the world.” It has grown even faster in recent years at a rapidly rising rate of “more than 72% between 2000 and 2010.” The “nationwide Arab American population, adjusting for under-reporting,” is closer to the higher AAI 3.7 million number, which is slightly more than one per cent of the U.S. population. The U.S. Census Bureau’s proposed new Middle Eastern-North African (MENA) racial category should provide a major boost in the numbers claimed by Arab American lobbying groups and community organizers in the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census........To Read More...