President Biden easily won Michigan’s Democratic primary Tuesday night, but his support was impacted by an anti-Israel protest movement calling for voters to fill in “uncommitted.”
With 98.5% of the expected vote in, Biden had 81.1% support, while rivals Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) garnered 3.0% and 2.7%, respectively.
“Uncommitted” received 13.3% of the vote, above the 10.7% it garnered when President Barack Obama ran unopposed in the 2012 primary.
The raw vote total was even more striking, with more than 100,000 “uncommitted” ballots tallied as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday compared to 20,833 in 2012.
Ground zero of support for the “uncommitted” vote was Wayne County — home to the largest Arab American community in the country, based in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn — where more than 26,000 Democratic voters made their protest.
The president has been victorious in the New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan primaries. AP
The movement to steer clear of supporting Biden, 81, was driven by anti-Israel group Listen to Michigan, which aimed to show Biden he cannot win a second term unless he demands the Jewish state enter a cease-fire in its war against Hamas following the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed an estimated 1,200.
Listen to Michigan set the modest goal of getting 10,000 voters to mark themselves “uncommitted” — a reference to the margin by which former President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016 and a benchmark that was easily reached Tuesday night.
“Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations,” the group said Tuesday night on X. “Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom who [sic] voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza.”
“President Biden, listen to Michigan. Count us out, Joe,” a separate tweet from the group read.
Listen to Michigan also teased that it would have a presence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
The group expects to be awarded at least one delegate based on Tuesday’s results.
“The worst-case scenario is that if Biden does not listen to this group, no matter what size it is, those votes are lost,” said Arab American pollster and Michigan native John Zogby.
“If it is 15 or 16%, it is a very highly intense 15 or 16%. That means that people are very angry, that they are part of a movement … that is very angry and wants to send a message to Joe Biden.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) greets demonstrators with Code Pink for Peace outside her office in the Rayburn House Office Building as they rally on Capitol Hill in support of Palestinians and to demand a cease-fire in Gaza on February 15. Getty Images“Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also encouraged voters to fill in “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s support of military aid for Israel.
“I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic ballot and vote uncommitted. We must protect our democracy. We must make sure that our government is about us, about the people,” Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to Congress, said in a video released by Listen to Michigan, which is led by her younger sister Layla Elabed.
“When 74% 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,'” Tlaib added. “Listen to Michigan.”
“I want to thank every Michigander who made their voice heard today,” Biden said in a statement that did not mention his internal opposition. “Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great.”
Two days ahead of Michigan’s presidential primary election, a rally in heavily Arab American Hamtramck urges a vote for “uncommitted” instead of for President Biden. Abraham Aiyash (right), majority floor leader in the state House of Representatives, joined the rally. Jim West/imageBROKER/ShutterstockBiden went on to tout his administration’s accomplishments in the state and attack Trump, his likely opponent Nov. 5.
“I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with UAW workers last year as they led the fight for the wages and benefits they deserve. We took on Big Pharma and are lowering the cost of prescription drugs for nearly 2 million Michigan seniors. We’re investing in our world-class auto industry and are finally making big corporations pay their fair share after Trump rigged the economy for special interests and gave handouts to his wealthy friends. And we’re fixing our crumbling bridges and roads while creating thousands of good-paying, union jobs right here in Michigan after Trump shipped them overseas,” the president said.
“For all of this progress, there is so much left to do. Donald Trump is threatening to drag us even further into the past,” he added.
Biden faced a similar protest movement in the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, in which Democrats were encouraged to write in “cease-fire.” Only 1.2% of voters, or around 1,500 people, did so.
President Biden talks with Seth Meyers during a taping of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Feb. 26. APProtesters have also crashed Biden events around the country, interrupting speeches and marching around hotel lobbies. On Monday night, the president was greeted by protesters who followed him into 30 Rockefeller Plaza for his interview with NBC late-night host Seth Meyers.
After recording the interview, Biden told reporters he hoped to have a cease-fire “by the end of the weekend.”
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet,” the president added. “My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a cease-fire.”
