At New Arc, we use data to enable local communities to advance community priorities and shape national policy.
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Co-Founder and Executive Director
Fayrouz Saad is a national leader in public service whose career spans community organizing, presidential campaigns, and senior roles in government at every level — from the City of Detroit to the White House.
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Co-Founder and Board Director
Brenda F. Abdelall is a Board Member and Co-Founder of New Arc Collective, bringing more than 20 years of experience in public policy and strategic partnerships to the work of civic engagement.
Read more →Midterm elections take place halfway through a president's four-year term and give voters the opportunity to elect members of Congress, along with many state and local leaders. They are important because they determine who holds power in the House and Senate and can shape which laws, policies, and priorities move forward over the next two years.
Across the country, there are more than 3.6 million voters who are likely Muslim and Arab American. Voter registration in this community has surged over the past decade and turnout has consistently outpaced expectations.
Muslim voters are turning out in numbers large enough to swing presidential outcomes in key battleground states. In Georgia, where Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, more than 61,000 Muslim voters went to the polls, proving critical to the final election outcome. (This was found in Emgage's 'Million Muslim Votes Campaign Voter Impact Report' and verified by Politico and The Hill.)
This community has been activating for more than twenty years. In 2000, several major American Muslim organizations historically issued a joint endorsement of Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore. In Florida, the state that ultimately decided the entire election by a certified margin of just 537 votes, post-election estimates indicated that tens of thousands of Muslim voters backed Bush.
Like other communities, Muslim and Arab American voters are driven first by local economic issues. But U.S. foreign policy choices impact this group in historic and ongoing ways, which sets it apart from the general electorate. This group is among the most civically engaged and fastest-growing constituencies in the country.
Arab and Muslim Americans are individually unique as well as racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse. Arab Americans include people who are Christian, Muslim, Druze, and secular. Muslim Americans represent one of the most diverse faith communities in the country, with no single ethnic group comprising more than 30 percent of the population.
What these two communities have in common are structural barriers to civic participation. Both groups are consistently undercounted and underserved when it comes to civic life. They are also both subject to narratives about their political behavior that do not reflect their actual priorities or experiences. New Arc is committed to providing both Arab and Muslim Americans with the tools, data, and coordination to engage effectively as voters and as allies in the American political system.
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