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The Michigan primary protest vote against Biden’s support for Israel
Insights from Reuters, The Nation, and NPR
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Voters in Michigan opposed to Washington’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war are planning to use the state’s presidential primary to protest against President Joe Biden’s policies.
A network of grassroots organizations have urged the public to vote “uncommitted” on their ballots to oppose Biden’s continued military support for Israel in its attacks on Gaza. While the president is still expected to win the race, the protest vote could portend trouble for the Democrats as the general election approaches.
The organizers hope to capture 10,000 “uncommitted” votes — targeting young people, progressives, and Arab Americans — and push Biden toward a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for their votes in November. Biden said Monday that he hopes to have a temporary ceasefire in place within a week, an agreement that would still fall short of the Michigan organizers’ demands.
Michigan is a crucial swing state, and former Rep. Andy Levin, D.-Mich., told The Wall Street Journal that “it’s going to be very hard or even impossible to beat Donald Trump in Michigan if President Biden doesn’t change course.”
SIGNALS
Key voting blocs are disenchanted with Biden
Black voters played a key role in getting Biden to the White House in 2020, but some say he hasn’t done enough to keep their votes in 2024. “If he cannot understand the plight of the Palestinian people, he will never be able to understand the plight of Black Americans or Black people in general in the U.S.,” one voter told Reuters. Young voters and Muslim and Arab voters are also critical to Biden’s success in Michigan, a political science professor told TIME, but their votes aren’t guaranteed either. “They’re feeling the dissatisfaction of their vote being taken for granted,” she said. “In a state like Michigan, that could be precarious for President Biden.” The “depth of anger and frustration over Israel and other policies” has surprised Biden’s campaign, Reuters reported, with one senior campaign adviser saying, “We are getting hurt more than we anticipated.”
‘Uncommitted’ effort could help Biden if he changes course on Israel
Some organizers of the “uncommitted” push are framing it the opposite way, saying the movement is an opportunity for Biden to secure potentially pivotal votes in the general election — if he changes course on Israel. “Supporters can push Biden to change course on Gaza now and increase his chances of winning Michigan in November — because we MUST defeat the right wing Trump agenda!” Levin said in a letter to members of the progressive group Our Revolution. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has endorsed the uncommitted movement alongside local leaders such as Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, whose city is home to the largest Muslim population in the U.S. and is roughly 54% Arab American. “We all have a voting bloc, we all have political power that we can leverage right now to vote uncommitted,” one “Listen to Michigan” organizer told ABC News.
Some Democrats see ‘uncommitted’ as an empty threat
“The pivotal question is whether voters who choose ‘uncommitted’ as a protest Tuesday will decide in November to stay home, back Trump or — as some Democrats privately believe — grudgingly come back to Biden,” The Wall Street Journal reported. It’s a delicate calculus: Would Democrats risk a second Trump presidency to protest the Israel-Hamas war? “I think you’ll see how weak [the uncommitted] movement is when Biden’s delegates win Michigan,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told Politico, calling the strategy “irrelevant.” One voter told NPR that while she’s voting uncommitted in the primary, she’s worried about the choice she might have to make in the general election.“I know that Trump being in office is going to be 10 times worse. He has a track record unlike Biden, Biden never did anything like the Muslim ban. I’m almost cornered into having to [vote Biden] but I want to feel more resolved in that vote,” she said.
