President Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary Tuesday night, but his total vote percentage was significantly impacted by an anti-Israel protest movement calling for voters to fill in “uncommitted.”
The president received 78.5 % of the total vote, while rivals Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and self-help author Marianne Williamson got 2.7% and 2.6%, respectively. “Uncommitted” received 16.2 % of the vote.
Biden, 81, is facing vocal resistance to his re-election campaign from groups claiming he supports genocide in the Gaza Strip due to his administration’s funding of Israel as the Jewish State attempts to rid the region of the terror group Hamas.
In Michigan, the anti-Israel group “Listen to Michigan” aimed to show Biden he could not win the general election without the support of the largest Arab-American community in the country until he changed his position on Israel.
The protest group specified it wanted at least 10,000 voters to fill in “uncommitted” instead of Biden — the same margin of voters that propelled Trump to victory in the state over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Michigan — the last state to vote before Super Tuesday and a state where Biden narrowly defeated GOP front-runner Donald Trump in 2020 — is a litmus test for campaigns to identify any weak points they may face going into November.
“Michigan voters are sending Biden a clear message in the February 27 Democratic primary that he can count us out. We are filling out the UNCOMMITTED bubble because we strongly reject Biden’s funding war and genocide in Gaza,” Listen to Michigan stated on its website.
“Trump only won Michigan in 2016 by about 10,000 votes. Uncommitted Michigan Democrats opposed to Biden’s policy in Gaza can demonstrate that we hold his margin of victory for re-election.”
Democratic pollster John Zogby, who is Arab-American and from Michigan, told The Post that this movement is likely to have negative impacts for Biden in the general election.
“The worst case scenario is that if Biden does not listen to this group, no matter what size it is, those votes are lost,” Zogby said, noting that the voters in the movement won’t change their minds due to the president’s other achievements.
“If it is 15 or 16 percent, it is a very highly intense 15 of 16 percent. 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.”
“Squad” member Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative from Michigan, has also encouraged voters to fill in “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s funding of Israel.
Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress and is the older sister of Layla Elabed, who is leading the Listen to Michigan campaign.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pushed back on the movement days before the primary vote, urging voters to cast their ballots for Biden.
“We will see differences of opinion,” Whitmer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also commented on Tlaib’s remarks, highlighting that administration senior officials traveled to Michigan “earlier this month to hear from Muslim and Arab Americans.”
“We care very much about that and what the community is going through and wanted to convey that in a strong way,” Jean-Pierre said during a White House press conference.
Biden faced a similar protest movement in the New Hampshire primary, where Democrats were encouraged to write in “ceasefire.” Only 1.2% of voters, or around 1,500 people did so.
Protesters have also crashed repeated Biden events around the country, interrupting speeches and marching around hotel lobbies. On Monday night, the president was bombarded with 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 ceasefire “by the end of the weekend.”
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” the president added.
