‘Uncommitted’ draws strong support in Minn.
The movement objecting to President Biden’s position on Israel by voting “uncommitted” drew a significant share of the vote Tuesday in Minnesota despite having a hastily organized and low-budget campaign.
With more than 95 percent of ballots counted early Wednesday, “uncommitted” had earned 19 percent support, enough to send delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The number of protest votes in Minnesota, more than 45,000, suggested that dissatisfaction over Biden’s stance on the war in the Gaza Strip had spread beyond Muslim Americans to progressives and younger voters.
The state’s contest was just one of several across the nation on Super Tuesday in which Democrats registered unhappiness with the president.
In North Carolina, 12 percent of voters had cast ballots for “no preference” with more than 95 percent of the vote counted. In Massachusetts, “no preference” had earned 9 percent with nearly 80 percent of the vote in. Last week in Michigan, more than 101,000 people — 13 percent of voters — supported “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary, winning at least two delegates.
The Biden campaign, which has tried to downplay the significance of the “uncommitted” efforts, issued a statement early Wednesday about the Minnesota results.
“The president believes making your voice heard and participating in our democracy is fundamental to who we are as Americans,” said Lauren Hitt, a campaign spokesperson. “He shares the goal for an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace in the Middle East. He’s working tirelessly to that end.”
The last-minute campaign in Minnesota was assembled by a coalition of Muslim voters and progressive Democrats who are angry with Biden for his alliance with Israel.
“Our goal is to get the president’s attention, and we are doing that,” Asma Mohammed, one of the effort’s organizers, said at a watch party in Minneapolis as the results came in. The crowd broke into chants of “Free Palestine!” as the number of “uncommitted” votes kept rising.
The organizers had less time and money than their Michigan counterparts, whom they said had helped inspire their efforts. They began their campaign roughly a week before the primary, with early voting already underway, and said they spent about $20,000. In Michigan, organizers were able to spread their message for three weeks and raised about $200,000. They also benefited from the endorsement of influential supporters, like Representative Rashida Tlaib, the Detroit-area Democrat, and from a populous Arab American community.
Still, Minnesota’s large population of Somali Americans, progressives, and late-deciding voters with a history of backing quirky independent candidates allowed “uncommitted” to put up a strong showing.
NEW YORK TIMES
Garvey to face Schiff in race for Feinstein’s Senate seat
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For months after Steve Garvey joined the race for the Senate seat formerly held by Dianne Feinstein, voters in California were only dimly aware that he was a candidate. A Republican long shot in a deeply Democratic state, the former Major League Baseball star seemed to be courting tens of millions of Californians in stealth mode: Scant press. Vague stances. No ads to speak of.
Then Representative Adam Schiff stepped in.
On Tuesday, after a blitz of campaign ads that essentially allowed Schiff to choose his general election opponent, voters in the California primary vaulted Garvey, 75, into a November runoff for a prized Senate seat representing the nation’s most populous state. He will face Schiff, 63, a Los Angeles-area Democrat who has raised more than $30 million and has been the frontrunner for months.
Schiff is a 12-term congressman who led the prosecution in former president Donald
Trump’s first impeachment trial. Garvey is a career .294 hitter with 272 home runs and 1,308 runs batted in over 19 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the 1970s and 1980s.
Known in his sports heyday as a clean-cut role model, Garvey has leveraged his reputation since then by appearing in infomercials, giving motivational speeches, and recording $149 Cameo greetings. He has long expressed a desire to run for public office, despite the hurdle of some highly publicized marital, financial, and legal woes in his past.
He was late to the Senate race, announcing his candidacy in October, long after Schiff had started campaigning and shoring up support from the state Democratic establishment, including an endorsement from Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House. By that time, the conventional wisdom was that the primary would result in Schiff facing another Democrat — either Representative Katie Porter or Representative Barbara Lee — in the November general election to fill the office Feinstein held for more than 30 years.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-to-1 in California, and voters have not elected a Republican in a statewide race since Arnold Schwarzenegger was reelected governor in 2006. But Republican Party leaders were eager to field a well-known candidate at the top of the ticket anyway, in order to mobilize the state’s conservative minority and help with some competitive down-ballot races.
NEW YORK TIMES
Dean Phillips suspends his long shot presidential bid
Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota suspended his long-shot campaign for the Democratic nomination Wednesday and endorsed President Biden.
“To all who supported my effort, thank you. We will continue the important work to ensure a more responsive, democratic, and generationally diverse political system,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “But today, in light of the stark reality we face, I ask you join me in mobilizing, energizing, and doing everything you can to help keep a man of decency and integrity in the White House. That’s Joe Biden.”
Phillips, Biden’s most significant Democratic rival, entered the race in October — in the absence of other serious primary challengers — after publicly arguing for months that the president was a weak candidate. Spending millions of his own money on his campaign, Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, pointed to Biden’s age and low approval numbers as signs that voters wanted a younger, new generation of leaders.
But while voters have indeed repeatedly indicated that they do not want a rematch between Biden and Donald Trump, they have also indicated a lack of interest in Phillips as a Democratic alternative.
NEW YORK TIMES
Musk says he won’t donate to Biden or Trump
Elon Musk signaled he won’t donate money to likely Republican nominee Donald Trump or President Biden, downplaying expectations after a meeting with the GOP candidate earlier this week.
“Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. Musk stopped short of specifying Trump or Biden by name.
Musk’s comments, however, do not rule out donations to a super political action committee or other political causes.
The announcement, though, is a blow to Trump, who has a serious cash disadvantage as he launches into a general election rematch with Biden. Trump’s last Republican rival, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race on Wednesday, all but locking up the GOP nomination for the former president.
Musk, who is worth $192 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, is the chief executive of Tesla.
He met Trump on Sunday as the Republican looks to woo donors. Trump’s campaign war chest is far smaller than Biden’s. He began February with $30.4 million on hand, compared with the president’s $130 million, according to federal filings. The Republican’s court cases have been a financial drain on his campaign.
Musk has said he voted for Biden in 2020 but has been a sharp critic of the president’s policies in office, including over the migrant crisis at the southwest US border.
“The campaign just broke our grassroots fund-raising record for the fourth month in a row, so we’re good,” Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said. “But someone should check in on Donald Trump’s lawyers who are now probably more than a little panicked about getting stiffed again.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request to comment.