Biden backlash
Loses ‘protest’ points in Michigan
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 almost three-fifths of the expected vote in, Biden had 81.2% support, while rivals Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) garnered 3.0% and 2.8%, respectively.
“Uncommitted” received 13.0% of the vote, far below the benchmark set in the 2008 Michigan Democratic primary, when close to 40% of the electorate opted not to back any candidate.
A fuller picture of the “uncommitted” vote would not be clear until final results came in from Wayne County — home to the largest Arab American community in the country, based in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn.
The movement to steer clear of supporting Biden, 81, was driven by anti-Israel group “Listen to Michigan,” which aimed to show Biden he can not 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.
As of early Wednesday, more than 68,000 “uncommitted” votes had been tallied.
“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 voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his reelection 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 this 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 part of a movement . . . that is very angry and wants to send a message to Joe Biden.”
“Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) 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.”
Biden went on to tout his administration’s accomplishments in the state and verbally attack Trump, his likely opponent Nov. 5.