The 13 percent “uncommitted” vote share represents a marginal increase over the 11 percent protest vote against Obama in 2012.
President Joe Biden won the Michigan Democratic primary by a landslide on Tuesday despite a concerted effort among Michigan progressives to express their discontent over the administration’s support for Israel by casting their ballots for the “uncommitted” candidate option.
As of Wednesday morning, with nearly all of the vote reported, just over 13 percent of voters had cast their ballots for the “uncommitted” candidate option, while Biden secured 81 percent of the vote.
The Arab-American progressive activists who organized the protest vote hailed the results as a success in their effort to warn the Biden administration that continued support for Israel in its ongoing war against Hamas would pose an electoral risk in the battleground state come November. At 100,000 “uncommitted” votes, the effort easily eclipsed the bar for success set by Listen to Michigan, the activist group that organized the campaign, which said that anything over 10,000 votes would represent a win.
While the raw vote total from Tuesday night may seem significant, in relative terms it represents just a marginal increase over comparable recent contests.
Roughly 20,000 “uncommitted” votes were cast against President Barack Obama in 2012 — just one fifth of the number cast against Biden Tuesday night — but, given the relatively low turnout that year, the protest vote against Obama still claimed 11 percent of the vote share. By comparison, the “uncommitted” option drew 13 percent of the vote Tuesday night, just a 2-point increase over 2012. In terms of raw vote totals, Biden blew Obama out of the water, winning 618,000 votes compared to Obama’s 174,000.
Despite the relative paltry vote share, anti-Israel progressives are touting the results as evidence of their electoral might and urging the Biden administration to change course on Israel.
“This is a resounding victory for our country’s pro-Palestinian, antiwar movement,” Abbas Alawieh, a former chief of staff to Representative Cori Bush (D., Mo.) and spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, told the group’s watch party as the “uncommitted” vote total passed 11,000, Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Our movement is actually a favor to President Biden, the people around him,” Alawieh told Politico. “We’re telling you exactly what you need to do to win in Michigan.”
The loss of 100,000 votes could certainly cost Biden Michigan in November, but the progressives who mounted the protest campaign are exceedingly unlikely to turn out for Trump, and the Biden campaign is confident they’ll come home for the general election when confronted with the threat of another Trump presidency.
“We also know that nearly all of the folks voting uncommitted do not support the extremism, the xenophobia, and incompetence of Donald Trump,” a Biden campaign insider told Politico. “They want a president who listens and delivers. That’s Joe Biden. We will earn their votes between now and November.”
Still, Michigan progressives are confident they have the administration’s ear.
“The question now has to be asked of the president in his campaign: What are they willing to do to heed the call of the people and listen to the demands that were presented over the last 140-plus days?” state representative Abrham Aiyash, the Democratic floor leader of the Michigan House of Representatives, told Politico.
Formed earlier this month, Listen to Michigan was backed by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and former representative Beto O’Rourke (D., Texas). Tlaib said earlier Tuesday she was “proud” to vote “uncommitted,” which she hopes will persuade Biden to support a truce between Israel and Hamas.
“When 74 percent of Democrats in Michigan support a cease-fire, yet President Biden is not hearing us, this is the way we can use our democracy to say ‘listen.’ Listen to Michigan,” Tlaib said in a video, calling for the protest vote.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, Biden was steadfast in his public support for Israel, defending the Jewish state’s right to eliminate the terror group. However, in recent weeks Biden has seemed to waver, publicly scolding Israel for being overzealous in its bombing campaign in Gaza and, according to reports, privately disparaging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to entertain cease-fire negotiations.
On Monday, Biden said he hopes to have a cease-fire deal in place by next week. The president also made a similar remark during a Monday appearance on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“I think if we get that — that temporary cease-fire, we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic and not have a two-state solution immediately, but a process to get to a two-state solution,” Biden told the comedian.
Abdullah Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of Dearborn, Mich., criticized the president for refusing to parrot the anti-Israel line on the war.
“The first and most immediate thing you need to do is step to the podium and not call for a temporary cease-fire, to stop using language such as ‘humanitarian pauses,’ which is just disrespectful and dehumanizing, and once and for all come out and say, ‘We demand the end of the killing of innocent men, women and children, and that begins with a permanent and lasting cease-fire,'” Hammoud said Tuesday.
“I believe in holding our elected officials accountable, even if we belong to the same party. And that’s the message that we’re trying to send: We want a president who does not support a genocide,” the mayor added.
After speaking with voters on the ground, Hammoud shared on social media that, while many were “uncommitted,” others chose to write in “cease-fire” or “free Palestine” as a candidate option, take non-partisan ballots and skip the presidential question altogether, or vote for a Democratic primary candidate who has called for a cease-fire.