Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Michigan – but a concerted effort by anti-war activists to vote “uncommitted” in the race could overshadow his win.
The US president faced no real primary challenger in the contest. But a campaign that formed just weeks before the primary to vote “uncommitted” in protest of his continued support for Israel’s war in Gaza signaled the deep level of fury and betrayal some Arab American and younger voters in the state feel for Biden.
The group pushing for voters to choose “uncommitted” – called Listen to Michigan – set the goal of 10,000 uncommitted votes in the primary, roughly the same margin that Biden won Michigan by in 2020. With only 17% of the votes tallied, “uncommitted” had received nearly 23,000 votes. For context, when the then president, Barack Obama, ran uncontested in the 2012 race, about 21,000 voted “uncommitted” against him in that state’s primary, with about 194,000 voting in total.