Washington: It was a moment of truth for Joe Biden.
More than three years after voters in Michigan helped propel him to the White House, many Democrats in the Midwest state turned against the president over his stance on the bloodshed in Gaza.
In a Democratic primary race to determine who should be their presidential candidate, tens of thousands of Michigan voters marked “uncommitted” on their ballot paper in a potent symbol of the seething anger they felt about the Israel-Hamas war.
A volunteer holds a sign outside a polling station at Oakman School in Dearborn, Michigan.Credit: Bloomberg
The protest vote was pushed by residents forming a sizeable part of the Democratic base, including Arab-Americans, young people, and black voters.
For months, they have raged against Israel’s scorched-earth campaign in Gaza and demanded a ceasefire, but in the absence of one, they formed a grassroots campaign – aptly titled “Listen to Michigan” – to send a message to the president.
The White House has now heard this message loud and clear.
Biden did not have a serious challenger in this race and was always expected to win the primary. But with almost 60 per cent of the vote counted by 11.30pm on Tuesday night (US time) more than 57,000 voters – or 13.5 per cent – had chosen the uncommitted option on their ballot paper.
Mona Marwari, of Dearborn, calls a voter for the Listen to Michigan uncommitted vote campaign in Detroit on Tuesday.Credit: AP
To put this in context, this represented far more than the 10,704 votes Trump needed to win Michigan from Hillary Clinton in 2016, and much more than the 10,000-vote threshold the activists had set themselves for the ballot.
To that end, the result was a warning sign for a leader already suffering from record low approval ratings, concerns about his age and policy headaches such as the US border crisis.
After all, Michigan, along with the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is part of the so-called “blue wall” Biden needs to hold to return to office.
The great unknown is what these voters will do at the general election in November.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office on the day of the Michigan primaries.Credit: AP
Will some choose to sit out the contest? Will some vote for a third-party candidate? Or will some shift to Trump, just as they did eight years ago?
Asked about this after polls closed, Listen to Michigan spokeswoman Layla Elabed – sister of Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – acknowledged that Trump, who imposed a Muslim ban as president, was not exactly a “friend” to their cause.
But she said that uncommitted voters were not a monolith either, and “are going to have to vote with their conscience” at the general election.
“There are going to be groups of voters within this movement that already feel deeply betrayed by Biden and his administration for the fact that Muslim Americans and Arab Americans have been directly affected by Israel’s aggression and the collective punishment of Palestinians,” she said.
“And not only that. As Democrats we feel betrayed because why are we risking our democracy to align ourselves with someone like [Israeli leader Benjamin] Netanyahu and his right-wing government?”
The good news for Biden is that there are still several months between now and the election, and in a country as unpredictable as the divided states of America, anything can happen.
Republicans held their primary contest in Michigan too, and while Trump won resoundingly over Nikki Haley, she still had more than 162,000 votes with just over half the overall vote counted.
If those voters don’t want Trump, where will they go in November?
In terms of the Middle East conflict, the White House insists it is doing everything it can to push for a ceasefire.
Maybe so, but the president clearly has some work to do to win back the very coalition that helped him get to the White House in first place.
With Trump on the march, and voter anger and apathy a genuine risk in an election rematch that few Americans seem to want, nothing can be left to chance.
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Uncommitted Arab-Americans send strong message to Biden in Michigan
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28.02.2024
Washington: It was a moment of truth for Joe Biden.
More than three years after voters in Michigan helped propel him to the White House, many Democrats in the Midwest state turned against the president over his stance on the bloodshed in Gaza.
In a Democratic primary race to determine who should be their presidential candidate, tens of thousands of Michigan voters marked “uncommitted” on their ballot paper in a potent symbol of the seething anger they felt about the Israel-Hamas war.
A volunteer holds a sign outside a polling station at Oakman School in Dearborn, Michigan.Credit: Bloomberg
The protest vote was pushed by residents forming a sizeable part of the Democratic base, including Arab-Americans, young people, and black voters.
For months, they have raged against Israel’s scorched-earth campaign in Gaza and demanded a ceasefire, but in the absence of one, they formed a grassroots campaign – aptly titled “Listen to Michigan” – to send a message to the president.
The White House has now heard this message loud and clear.
Biden did not have a........
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