Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has heard plenty of political takes on former President Donald Trump's election victory.
Trump flipped Michigan, receiving nearly half of the vote in a key battleground state that backed Biden in 2020 by 154,000 votes. In Dearborn, the largest Arab American-majority city in the country, Trump received more than 42 percent of the vote, while Vice President Kamala Harris got 36 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 18.
Hammoud said some "really awful" explanations have come from pundits, who before Election Day had focused on how certain communities would vote and have since blamed Latino, Muslim or Arab American voters for Vice President Kamala Harris' loss.
"If you don't know our stories, if you don't know our names, if you don't know the names of the villages of our ancestral homes or the names of the family members that we have had to bury or say goodbye to, then you don't know what happened," he said.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud opening the city's inaugural coffee week at Peace Park West as community members gather to celebrate Yemeni coffee. Photo was taken Nov. 8. Photo by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang/PBS News
To Hammoud, who did not offer an endorsement ahead of the election, Muslim and Arab Americans and many in the pro-justice movement consistently communicated the feelings of grief and betrayal over the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza — which emerged as a top issue according to polling from the Arab American Institute and Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. Voters also felt frustrated by inflation and the stretch they felt in their paychecks.
"Obviously, those calls were not heard or taken up by anyone," Hammoud said.
He did not anticipate much change on this issue in a second Trump term, but he said the people in Dearborn will continue to lean on one another and to hold whoever is in the White House accountable for changing course in Gaza and Lebanon. The MENA American Chamber of Commerce, representing some Dearborn entrepreneurs with interest in the Middle East and North Africa, sent Trump a letter dated Nov. 8 asking him to keep his pre-election promises to them for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and Palestine.
The White House is only one part of the story. Along with Trump's win was the reelection of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who represents Dearborn and Dearborn Heights and won 70 percent of the vote.
Hammoud said understanding starts with talking directly to people who live in communities like his, rather than just focusing on precinct data. The Democratic Party in particular needs to "to pause for a moment and truly reflect on what unfolded and understand what they have to do to be ready."
READ MORE: How Harris and Trump are trying to reach voters in the battleground state of Michigan
As leaders reflect on the election outcome and what happens next, PBS News asked Muslim and Arab American voters about how they felt after the election.
Pressure on the community
Educator and lifelong Democrat Nancy Habhab said that she felt relieved the election was over and a little bit uncertain about what is to come.
"It was a lot of pressure on the community," she said.
Habhab voted for Biden in 2020, but did not feel comfortable voting for either Trump or Harris this time, although she did have family members who voted for Trump.
"With the genocide going on overseas," said Habhab, who was born in Lebanon, "It doesn't sit well with me that my cousins and relatives are being bombed, and they're using taxpayer money, our taxes," to do it.
READ MORE: What 'uncommitted' voters in Michigan want
With Trump taking office in January, she hopes that the war and the climate will change but, "I know how Trump is. I know he's a narcissist."
Habhab said Harris was not listening to the community. Had she listened or had the administration stopped what they were doing overseas, she thinks more people would have been more willing to support her.
Not feeling heard
Siham Awada Jaafar was disappointed that the Democratic Party did not allow an Arab American to take the main stage at its national convention.
"I don't think people were heard at all during this process. I think this was a whirlwind," she said. "As an American, I don't feel heard. As an Arab American, I was definitely not heard."
Awada Jaafar, CEO of 3D Consulting and Communications, which specializes in diversity training and cultural competency programs, is also concerned about Israel's war in Gaza and Lebanon — "and it is a genocide" — and the trillions in U.S. tax dollars being spent to bomb civilians and expand territory for a "land grab" and colonization.
She is not sure what a second Trump presidency will look like, but given his history, she anticipates some struggle depending on the qualifications of who he puts into his cabinet and who is making key decisions.
"My philosophy is we just have to try to do what we can in our own corner of the world to make things better, to make things more positive," she said, "and hopefully it will have a trickle effect."
Going forward, she hopes there will be major campaign reform and some diversity in the next administration.
"We are a diverse country. We are a country of immigrants. Diversity is extremely, extremely important. People need to be at the table. Diverse voices need to be at the table," she said.
Hassane and Siham Awada Jaafar of Dearborn, Michigan, did not feel heard during this election and worry about people feeling marginalized and being divided socio-economically. Photo courtesy of Siham Awada Jaafar
Hassane Jaafar, Siham's husband, is a retired high school principal in Dearborn. He is concerned about his students and their children exceling because he feels that education is the most important factor for social mobility, yet students are "riddled with [student loan] debt."
He is also worried about people feeling marginalized and being divided socio-economically, which is a continuing problem for both Republicans and Democrats.
"Why aren't we investing in the future of education in this country? Do we want education to be a privilege or a right? What made this country great is public education K through 12," he said.
Both parties have work to do to fix this, he added.
"We talk about being the moral compass of the world," he said. "Maybe we were after World War II. Right now, we anointed ourselves as the policeman of the world, and we are spending billions and trillions of dollars on ensuring that status, but that status comes [with] responsibilities. … Why is it the richest country in the history of humanity, by all accounts, [does not] have free college education for all students?"
WATCH: Dearborn mayor: 'The door is cracked open' for Harris to address frustrations over Gaza
Looking forward, he hopes that Trump's presidency will be based on facts, reconciliation, and moving forward in a positive direction domestically and internationally.
"A lot of innocent civilians have been slaughtered in the Middle East," Jaafar said. "We need to make sure that our end of the bargain is respected as far as bringing just peace to the Palestinian people and Lebanon, too."
Becoming more politically active
Zarinah El-Amin has heard a range of reactions among Muslim Americans, from fear and disappointment to anger to abandonment.
"I am not shocked or surprised or hurt by the results" of the election, she said. "But now at 45 years old, I realize that these folks and their laws and changes in policies really affect my children and their children."
Zarinah El-Amin has heard a range of reactions among Muslim Americans and has pledged to become more politically active. Photo courtesy of Zarinah El-Amin
Based in Metro Detroit, El-Amin is a cultural anthropologist and founder of The Legacy Keepers, a company that helps community elders write and publish books.
Up until this point, she has not been very politically active in her adult life. That is about to change.
"We must act, and we must all organize and find ways to improve our society," she said. "I cannot be apathetic and leave it to others."
"I'm not sure which way that will look for me yet, but that is my charge," she added.
Voting for political power
"People in our community went to the polls with Gaza in their heart and that decided this election," Amer Zahr said.
He said the election result was a historic opportunity for Arab American voters "not because we like Donald Trump, but because we had to make our voices known."
"And now, hopefully, we've secured political power for a generation," he added.
Zahr is a Palestinian American attorney, comedian, and professor, who also just became the first Palestinian American to be elected to the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education.
He said contrary to the idea that Arab Americans would stay home and not vote, Arab Americans did turn out to vote because "we were the voices for the people who didn't have voices, the voices of our families who were being torn apart, literally, back home."
A lawn sign in Dearborn, Michigan, reads, "A vote 4 Kamala is a vote 4 genocide" with a picture of the Democratic donkey. Photo by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang/PBS News
Voter turnout in Michigan was actually higher this year than it was in 2020, he said, because people wanted to make their voices heard.
"A lot of people thought that we were going to reject the Democratic Party wholeheartedly," Zahr said. "The Democratic Party won every partisan race they were in in Dearborn, except president. So our votes were targeted against a policy, not a party."
Zahr hopes political parties now realize that they cannot take Arab American communities for granted.
"We don't now magically belong to the Republican Party," he said. "We're not celebrating a Trump victory today, but we are celebrating our political power."