As Michigan residents took to the polls Tuesday for the state primaries, over 100,000 Democratic voters cast "uncommitted" ballots, amid activists' calls for constituents to select this option as a protest vote rejecting incumbent President Joe Biden's support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
While Biden appears to have easily won the primary, with nearly 80% of the vote in initial results, the large number of uncommitted voters signals growing frustration in the key battleground state at the White House's policies on the conflict and could present a challenge for the general election in November.
As of Wednesday morning, results showed more than 100,000 voters had selected uncommitted, or just over 13% of the vote, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Michigan is the home to the highest number of Arab Americans in the United States, accounting for just over 2% of the population. Voters in Michigan can select between either a Democratic, Republican or local-only ballot.
Among Republican voters, former President Donald Trump had gained around two-thirds of the votes in initial results, coming far ahead of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at 28%.
A group of Arab-American activists launched a campaign in early February named "Listen to Michigan," urging constituents to vote uncommitted in the state's presidential primary election to send a “clear message" that they "strongly reject Biden’s funding war and genocide in Gaza," according to a statement on the campaign's website. The group had said it was hoping to get 10,000 voters to cast "uncommitted" ballots.
While the campaign stressed that their call "is not an endorsement of Trump or a desire to see him return to power," its supporters are hoping to have their voices heard as their "pleas seem to fall on deaf ears while the tragedy in Gaza escalates."
Although previous elections have seen large numbers of uncommitted voters — with just over 19,000 constituents selecting this option in both the 2016 and 2020 primaries — Tuesday's record-high numbers indicate the campaign may have succeeded in its goal of sending a message.
Layla Elabed, Listen to Michigan’s campaign manager, is the sister of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress. Tlaib endorsed their campaign in early February and said that she voted uncommitted in a post on X Tuesday.
“This is the way that we can use our democracy to say listen, listen to Michigan,” Tlaib said.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) told MSNBC early Tuesday that she expected “a sizeable number of people to vote 'uncommitted,'” adding that she believed that Listen to Michigan will prevail in its goal of 10,000 casting their ballot as uncommitted.
For months, Michigan residents have exhibited at a local level signs of discontent with the administration's foreign policy approach on Gaza. In November, city councils in Detroit, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck — key consistuencies in the 2024 election — passed cease-fire resolutions.
The Biden administration has tried to mend fences with the community in recent months, sending USAID chief Samantha Powers, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Director Tom Perez and other officials to the Midwestern state on Feb. 8 to meet with local Arab and Muslim leaders.
While Biden stayed in Washington for the primaries, the president visited Michigan at the start of February, in a trip that saw protesters shouting "Abandon Biden!" the evening before his arrival. Biden skipped over Dearborn, a key Arab American community, whose mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, has called for a permanent cease-fire.
“As citizens of the United States of America and representatives of the City of Dearborn, we have done our duty; now it is incumbent upon the president to do the same,” Hammoud wrote on X after meeting with senior Biden advisors in early February.
Alabas Farhat, a Michigan state representative, said in a post on X Tuesday that "for over 140 days many of my constituents have been directly impacted by the ongoing genocide in Gaza. ... Our demands and calls have been ignored. The one thing the Biden Administration can’t ignore is our vote."
In the 2020 election, Biden won the Muslim vote by 64%, whereas 35% supported Trump, according to the Associated Press. In Arab-American counties in Michigan, where more than 200,000 registered voters report being Muslim, almost 70% of constituents voted for Biden for the last presidential elections.
