Team Biden Braces For More 'Uncommitted' Protest Votes On Super Tuesday
President Biden's path to the Democratic nomination could become one of serial humiliation. As Super Tuesday looms, Team Biden is hoping the embarrassment they endured in Michigan -- where more than 100,000 Democrats voted "uncommitted" as a form of protest -- isn't repeated in contests across the country.
Motivated largely by anger over Biden's handling of the Israel-Gaza war, Michigan's uncommitted drive exceeded organizers' expectations, with a hefty 13.3% of Democratic voters opting to repudiate the incumbent. The tally was large enough that two of the state's 117 delegates at the Democratic national convention will be free to vote as they please, though it seems likely that state party officials will pick Biden loyalists for the slots anyway.
Michigan's significant Muslim population led the effort, but disenchanted progressives and college students also played a key role -- and could do so again in upcoming primaries. “They’re absolutely not some voting bloc to take for granted,” leftist political consultant and former AOC confidante Corbin Trent tells the New York Post. "Biden is a general election threat to Democrats.”
if you live in Minnesota, please join me in voting “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on Tuesday to show Biden he must stop supporting Israel’s war on Gaza pic.twitter.com/uvxyPdGV7f
— Nathan Goldman (@nathangoldman) March 1, 2024
Eight of the 16 Super Tuesday states have either an "uncommitted" or write-in option on the ballot: Alabama, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont, according to the Post. Given it's the home of the country's largest Somali population, Minnesota is a state where uncommitted votes are more likely make waves for the Biden-Harris campaign.
“A majority of us have voted for Biden before, but this time I don’t think we should vote for him,” 26-year-old Minnesotan Abdifatah Abdi told Associated Press. Abdi says he's thinking of voting for Trump, shrugging off the former president's Muslim immigration ban in pursuit of the better of two evils. "Trump may be for a ban. But what is worse, a ban or the killing?”
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than a million forced from their homes amid Israel's massive retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Defying global condemnation, the Biden administration has steadfastly stood by the Israeli government, to include not only arming and funding it, but vetoing United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
Colorado is another state to keep an eye on. Inspired by Tuesday's result in Michigan, the Colorado Palestine Coalition and Democratic Socialists of America launched a "Vote Noncommitted Colorado" drive on Wednesday. That's a very late start compared to Michigan's effort that spanned weeks. "We figured if there's a way to make some waves and let our discontent be known, we might as well," Grace Thorvilson tells Axios Denver.
A New York Times/Siena poll released over the weekend found that only 23% of Democratic voters are enthused about Biden, with 32% either dissatisfied or angry about having him atop the ticket.
