DEARBORN — Members of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) have voted on their endorsements for the 2021 general elections.

AAPAC is the oldest Arab American political organization, established in 1998 and formed by a group of Arab Americans who set out to organize and encourage the political activities of the Arab American community.

Mona Fadlallah, the president of AAPAC, said the organization only discusses candidates who seek its endorsement.

“We first have to receive a written request before we can consider a candidate for endorsement,” she said. “Everyone we interview is someone who requested an endorsement. We typically interview candidates who we haven’t interviewed before or who haven’t run before for the position they are running for now.”

Fadlallah also said AAPAC’s Endorsement Committee carefully reviews the credentials of all the candidates vying for an endorsement.

AAPAC’s Endorsement Committee interviewing Dearborn mayoral candidate Gary Woronchak on Saturday, Oct. 2. Photo: Abbas Shehab

“We review the candidate’s background, his/her qualifications and we discuss and deliberate,” she said. “If a candidate gets two-thirds of the votes from the voting members who are participating, then he/she receives the endorsement.”

This year, the group voted to endorse Westland Mayor Bill Wild for another term and Jim Godbout for Westland City Council. 

For Dearborn Heights, AAPAC endorsed Mayor Bill Bazzi for a full term, Robert Constan, Hassan Ahmad and Mo Baydoun for City Council and Treasurer Lisa Hicks-Clayton for another term.

AAPAC also endorsed Alan Lambert for Romulus mayor.

With Dearborn having a large ballot and many candidates, AAPAC members interviewed candidates for mayor, City Council and Charter Commission.  After the interviews, AAPAC held a general membership meeting on October 5 and its members unanimously voted to endorse State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud for mayor and Mike Sareini (incumbent), Mustapha Hammoud, Khodr Farhat, Samra’a Luqman, Lola Elzein, Kamal Alsawafy and Saeid Alawathi for the seven City Council seats.

AAPAC’s Endorsement Committee interviewing Dearborn mayoral candidate Abdullah Hammoud on Saturday, Oct. 2. Photo: Abbas Shehab

For the nine-member Charter Revision Commission, AAPAC endorsed Hassan F. Abdallah, Mansour Sharha, Hussein Hachem, Richard AlAziz, Kimberly Ismail, Jamil Khuja, Sharon Dulmage, Sam Hamade and Albert Abbas.

“We have a great influx of highly qualified and extremely intelligent Arab Americans representing the community and it’s impressive,” Fadlallah said. “Every member can discuss the candidates and their credentials.  The deliberations are always lively and very involved; we follow a very democratic process for choosing who to endorse.”

AAPAC will be mailing its special election newsletter to registered voters in battleground areas, as it has done since the organization’s inception.