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More than 100,000 Democrats went to the polls in Michigan for the sole purpose of casting an « uncommitted vote in the state’s Democratic primary.
There were about 750,000 votes cast in the primary, making the « uncommitted » vote the second largest.
It was a shocking repudiation of a sitting president considering that the effort to get people to vote « uncommitted » only began in earnest two weeks ago. The campaign was poorly funded and was hampered by the perception that the backers were pro-Hamas.
But when 100,000 Democrats in a swing state expressed what amounted to a « no confidence vote » in Joe Biden, the president and his handlers had problems beyond the war in Gaza.
“I don’t see a pathway for them to win Michigan with that many people not voting for them,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of the Muslim advocacy organization Emgage. “I just don’t.”
It certainly is a handicap that Biden can ill afford.
To counteract the palpable discontent over his Israel policy, Biden dispatched top administration officials and allies in Congress to Michigan to talk with community leaders about the Israel-Hamas conflict. The state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, encouraged Democrats to vote for the president even as other Democrats — including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents parts of Detroit and Dearborn, and former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke — pushed voters towards the “uncommitted” line.
