DEARBORN—Attorney Ali Hammoud was elected as the new president of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) on Friday, April, 11. Hammoud succeeds Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Mariam Bazzi, who was elected the group’s treasurer.

The recent internal elections reshuffled the executive positions in the organization. Attorney and former 20th District Court Magistrate Zenna Elhasan was elected internal vice president, real estate agent Sam Baydoun external vice president and civil rights attorney Mona Fadlallah recording secretary.  

Hammoud said he is “humbled and honored” to become the head of AAPAC. “I joined the organization in 2009 because I was impressed with its effective outreach in educating Arab American voters and serving the community as a whole,” he explained.  “AAPAC has been a movement that empowered the Arab American voice amongst elected officials throughout the country and to be part of that is truly a privilege.”

Hammoud said he will reach out to other Arab American organization to cooperate with them on increasing voter awareness and participation. 

“We need to keep an accurate database of Arab American voters and reach out to these voters before and after elections. Our community has come a long way in the past couple years, but we need to realize that we need to continue to support and respect non-Arab candidates. AAPAC has always and will continue to support candidates regardless of their ethnicity or party affiliation,” he added.

The new AAPAC president said the organization also plans on using social media to broaden Arab American political participation. “We will be introducing a new interactive website as well as an AAPAC Facebook page and Twitter account. We will be using every social medium to increase awareness and increase voter participation,” he stated.

Bazzi, who was AAPAC’s president for four years, said her tenure as the head of the organization was “rewarding.”

“It is a great experience to be active and give back to the community by being involved in the political process,” she added.

Bazzi said AAPAC is an “influential and respectable” organization in the political and legal communities. She explained that local candidates for public office recognize AAPAC and seek its support.

She said it was “wonderful” that there are more women and younger people involved in the organization now than when she was first elected president. “I know Ali Hammoud will do a great job. He has great ideas, and he will work very hard to implement them. We will support him all the way,” Bazzi said. 

AAPAC will announce its endorsements for the August primaries at the end of June and for the November general election by the end of September.