Why are people voting 'uncommitted' over Biden in Michigan's primary?

Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan disillusioned with President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war are urging voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to vote “uncommitted” instead of for him.

📢 What does the protest hope to accomplish?

The campaign, which is calling itself “Listen to Michigan,” hopes that it will send a message to Biden and persuade him to back a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

“Having the option to vote uncommitted gives us a strong unifying vehicle to show our discontent and send a message to Biden that we need a permanent cease-fire,” Layla Elabed, Listen to Michigan campaign manager, told the Detroit Free Press.

Elabed’s sister, progressive Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, said she was "proud" to vote "uncommitted" Tuesday.

➡️ What Biden and his allies are saying

“There is a deep sense of hurt and loss, pain, grief among the Muslim and Arab American community and the progressive community,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California and one of Biden’s closest allies in Congress, told Politico.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden "cares about what that community is feeling very deeply."

"We believe it's important that they feel that they are able to to express themselves and voice voice their feelings and their concerns," she said.

🇺🇲 What Biden’s response has been to Oct. 7

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel — in which Israeli officials say Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took hundreds of others hostage — the Biden administration has consistently supported Israel’s right to retaliate while urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit civilian casualties.

The United States has thrice vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

But pressure on Biden has been mounting as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. According to the territory’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has left more than 29,000 Palestinians dead — two-thirds of them women and children.

Earlier this month Biden said that Israel’s response in Gaza has been “over the top.”

➡️ What the polls say

An Associated Press poll released earlier this month found that half of American adults say Israel’s offensive in Gaza has gone too far, including 62% of Democrats.

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted back in November showed that a clear majority of Democrats favored the U.S. brokering a ceasefire (56%) rather than continuing to back Israel’s efforts to eliminate Hamas (22%).

🗳️ What the protest vote could look like

In a memo, the Listen to Michigan campaign set 10,000 “uncommitted” voters as its benchmark for success in its memo.

It chose that number because it said that’s “about the same as Donald Trump’s margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016” in Michigan.

But as Politico notes, that’s a low threshold, given that “uncommitted” earned about 20,000 voters for various reasons in the last three Michigan presidential primaries.

And if the “uncommitted” vote clears the 15% threshold in the state’s congressional districts on Tuesday, NBC News points out, “at least some delegates at the national convention in Chicago in August wouldn’t be pledged to Biden.”

↘ What’s next?

Biden told reporters on Monday that he thought a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be in place by the end of this upcoming weekend.

But Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces would push into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah with or without a ceasefire agreement.

“It has to be done,” Netanyahu said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach.”