My love for politics started just before my senior year of high school when I attended a government camp at Michigan State University and created a mock government with give-or-take 200 other young women. I knew that becoming a legislator was something I wanted to accomplish at some point in my lifetime after I had been elected to be a Senator and started passing bills and interacting with the other branches of our fake government -- but that's a story for another week. After my little taste of being in the political arena, I fell in love with politics and have been trying to find ways to get involved in real life to start my own political journey.
Last winter, I met a man from my community who decided to run for State Representative while attending a meeting for an organization that I had just recently joined. The group threw simple questions at him like, "why are you running?" and "why should we vote for you?" and they progressively got more complex and difficult to answer. However, he was very capable of answering each question, and he was very educated on each issue. One thing that stuck with me was when asked if he was a feminist, he told us the story of his mother -- her high and low points and how she serves as a primary inspiration to him. I realized, then, that he was one of the brothers of one of my good friends; one that my friend talks particularly highly of. This man was Abdullah Hammoud.
Throughout the course of the winter semester, I saw Abdullah's name pop up on my Facebook feed quite often and I listened to his brother talk more and more about him; I found myself learning a lot about Abdullah Hammoud this way. I learned that Abdullah is a graduate from Fordson High School, the school that employs my mother. His brother told me about how he was accepted into his Master's program at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor at just 19 years old. I learned that he volunteered in Jordan for a year to help Palestinian refugees. And through all these amazing accomplishments and seeing the more heart-retching side of the world, he decided to come back to his roots and get his own place in Dearborn (this is a huge deal for Arabs, by the way). Abdullah has always had a dream of running for office and giving back to the community and making his mark on the world that way (I have the same aspiration). And after being home for a while, Abdullah decided that now was finally the right time to make his dreams a reality. Though he and his team have been working hard and hosting events since January, I didn't get too involved until the springtime.
Come May, I attended his most recent fundraising event. The support that he has from the community is absolutely incredible. I saw many familiar faces, but more so people I have never seen before. And although I didn't know every face in the crowd, we were all there because Abdullah impacted our lives enough for us to come out and show our support for him -- and I think that is a beautiful thing to have as a local politician. The fact that he is such a well-liked community figure along with all the good he has done and all that he plans to do inspired me to further my support.
After the fundraiser, I have only missed one weekend of volunteering for his campaign. Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I have been walking the neighborhoods of Dearborn (discovering some places that I didn't even know that were still considered Dearborn) knocking on doors of registered voters to educate them about Abdullah and encourage them to vote for him on August 2nd. I have walked somewhere around 42 neighborhoods, some ranging anywhere from as little as 15 houses to well over 50. Abdullah and his campaign coordinators, Ghida and Ryan, refer to me as the "veteran" door knocker, and I affectionately joke that I have sold my soul to this campaign. And each and every weekend they thank me over and over again, and every single time I tell them that it's, in all honesty, my pleasure and it's something that I sincerely enjoy doing. The experience is absolutely incredible, and I could not have picked a better candidate to volunteer for -- it makes me so unbelievably excited to run my own campaign, someday.
However, that someday is not today, and today is about Abdullah Hammoud. I have seen people go from not knowing who they wanted to vote for to becoming a supporter of Abdullah Hammoud. I have seen Abdullah's signs pop up in front of businesses and the homes of residents who are going to vote Hammoud next week. I see the other volunteers, Ryan, Ghida, and most importantly, Abdullah working exceedingly hard. Abdullah, himself, has personally walked door to door to meet Dearborn residents, answering their questions, and giving them every reason to show their support for him as I have. I become immensely elated when I knock on a door and someone tells me, "Abdullah has already been here, and he has my vote." It truly makes me feel like our efforts are paying off, and I pray that it shows on Election Day.
