DEARBORN — The elections of 2012 have become a landmark for the city of Dearborn, as Sam Salamey has officially been elected as the 19th District Court Judge, beating incumbent Richard Wygonik by over 4,000 votes. The victory means that Salamey is now the first ever Arab American judge in Dearborn, where he will be serving on the bench for six years. It’s a step in the right direction for a community that represents over 40 percent of the city’s population.

In a statement, Salamey thanked his supporters which included AAPAC, who endorsed his run for judge.

“This has been a great exhibition for democracy. I want to dedicate this victory to the entire city of Dearborn…to all those voters who voted for me, thank you. For those voters who voted for Richard Wygonik, I will promise you that I will earn your confidence and trust by being fair, partial and by dispensing justice with efficiency and protecting your tax dollars. I want to thank everyone who has contributed and helped this campaign with their votes and volunteer work. Thank you very much,” Salamey stated.

Salamey’s run up to election day included an aggressive campaign that focused on voter turnout, particularly targeting groups of people who wouldn’t have normally voted, as well as groups of people who usually partake in the election process. Salamey’s appeal seems to have spoken to not only the Arab American community, but also non-Arab residents who surprisingly helped Salamey win the race by a wide margin.

Hundreds of Salamey supporters and AAPAC volunteers came out to the campaign’s election night gathering at the Lapita restaurant located on Michigan Ave, where they awaited patiently for the results. According to some of Salamey’s campaign workers, not a lot of convincing had to be done on election day. People were coming out to the polls already decided on who they were going to vote for. On the west side of the city, where a smaller population of Arab Americans reside, questions arose on whether Salamey would be able to pull ahead of Wygonik in those precincts.

“A lot of people on the west side were not receptive to any of the volunteers who were trying to campaign for candidates. Whether it was Wygonik or Salamey, they would just ignore us and go in and vote,” stated Besan Mashhour, who was stationed at the Nolan location on behalf of Salamey’s campaign.

B

Salamey waits for the official results to come in from the city. At one point, he was ahead of Wygonik by 5,000 votes before the absentee ballots were counted.

ut it seems many residents on that end of town had already made up their mind in favor of Salamey, and that’s thanks in part to his outreach. Salamey spent weeks knocking door to door and speaking with residents first hand, which evidently worked very well in his favor. Salamey ended up winning 12 of the precincts in west Dearborn. In some other precincts that he did not win, he was only a few votes shy from doing so. 

According to Rawan Alkhamassi, who has been working with Salamey since the beginning of his campaign and was stationed at Long Elementary School, some of those residents did express their strong support toward Salamey over Wygonik when they came out to vote on election day.

“A lot of them had a very positive reaction to Sam because he already walked that area, they told us that they were already familiar with him because they had the opportunity to meet him and that they were supporting him with signs on their lawns. It was not surprising to me because we’ve had so much non-Arab supporters call up his office to ask how they can support him. It’s very evident that all of the walking Sam did in those areas paid off drastically,”Alkhamassi stated. 

While the campaign also predicted strong support from the Arab American community, that may have not come as easy as it may have seemed.  According to the campaign, a lot of pushing had to be done in the weeks leading up to election day to maximize the Arab American turnout. Salamey’s campaign is a huge part of the reason why a record breaking 8,500 people voted through the absentee ballot process in the city. Usually an avenue that’s dominated by senior citizens who tend to vote for the incumbent, this time around a large chunk of absentee votes were Salamey supporters. Overall, Wygonik won the absentee votes by a respectable margin, but Salamey’s campaign says those extra absentee votes were a crucial part of Salamey’s win. 

Salamey also gave a special thank you to his campaign manager Mallak Beydoun, who Salamey said had been responsible for running one of the greatest campaigns the city had ever seen. Beydoun spoke with The Arab American News briefly about the campaign’s strategies that led to the victory.

“What we did was we reached out to Arab citizens who don’t tend to vote, especially the older generation. A lot of them don’t partake in elections, or they are incapable of enduring those long lines on election day. A large group of voters were also traveling to Hajj last month so we made sure they all placed their votes before they left. This strategy worked very well in Salamey’s favor when all the votes were tallied up,” Beydoun stated.

If the impact of the Arab American vote was questionable before Salamey’s victory, it definitely shouldn’t be questionable now. The turnout on election day was overwhelmingly strong, according to many poll workers who worked the east side. Mariam Charara, who was working on behalf of AAPAC on election day at various precincts said that Salamey stole the show.

“The whole community came out mainly for Sam Salamey, even over the presidential race. From what I saw, the turnouts at McDonald and Woodworth were skyrocketing. At one point the lines were over an hour and thirty minutes,” Charara stated.

  

The turnout seemed to have been so strong that lines at one point discouraged people from voting. According to Renee Hadi, many of Salamey’s campaign workers began knocking door to door to urge Arab American residents to come out and vote. During the primary elections in August, Hadi even babysat just so residents could go cast their votes, and this time was no different. Hadi and other Salamey campaigners hit the streets on Dearborn’s east side near the Lowery, Becker, McDonald, Oakman and Miller precincts.

“I did it all…knocking on doors, babysitting, chauffeuring, you name it. Some people were telling me they went to the polls but left because of the long lines. We had to convince them to go again because every vote counts, and if you had 200 people saying my one vote won’t make a difference, that could’ve hurt us. All of those endless hours of hard work for this cause was definitely worth it and it shows what the community is capable of when they collaborate together,” Hadi stated. 

Salamey received 18,150 votes compared to Wygonik’s 14,020, winning over 56 percent of the votes. For others, Salamey’s victory demonstrated just how far the Arab American community has come. One Arab American  supporter at Salamey’s election night gathering said he was proud of this achievement for the community. 

“Arab Americans have come a long way as far as elections are concerned. A couple of years back David Turfee was elected judge in Dearborn Heights and since he has shown and proven his abilities in the chair, and he continues to be well loved by everyone in Dearborn Heights, by both Arabs and non-Arabs. Overall I am proud to see Arab Americans really be a part of this system. After all, we are Americans. I would have never thought I would see the day come that brings about 90% of the community to come out and vote. This is the only way we are going to have a better tomorrow and better representation for the Arab American community,”the man said.