Biden wins the Michigan primary amid push for ‘uncommitted’

Joe Biden won the Michigan primary Tuesday – as a push for ‘uncommitted’ was garnering thousands of votes in a warning sign for the president over the war in Gaza. Biden was leading with more than 80 per cent of the vote with nearly two-thirds of the vote in early Wednesday. But ‘uncommitted’ was at 13 per cent, with more than 70,000 votes. That was already more than a bar that activists had set for themselves.

The Associated Press called the race for Biden immediately after the last polls closed at 9pm Tuesday. Biden faced token opposition on the ballot from Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, but his real battle has been against ‘uncommitted’ and against himself. Biden faced scrutiny in the state for his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and many Arab American voters in Dearborn and other parts of Detroit have been registering their anger about the war. Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) who is Palestinian-American has been hammering Biden and pushing the ‘uncommitted’ effort.

A group of activists who organized a push for ‘uncommitted’ treated the results as cause for a victory rally Tuesday night, packing the Adonis restaurant next to the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn that featured food, music, and proclamations of victory – along with statements about the growing toll of the war in Gaza. ‘Here in southeastern Michigan, people in our Arab American community have an expertise of horrifying expertise. So many of us have survived U.S.-funded bombs,’ said ‘Listen to Michigan’ co-organizer Abbass Alawieh at a post-election rally that ‘uncommitted’ backers treated as a victory rally. ‘That’s all we’re asking for. Just stop killing our families. It’s actually not all that complicated. Just stop killing our families, President Biden. You can do it,’ he said.

Layla Elabed, another organizer, said volunteers made 1 million voter calls as part of the effort. Elabed, the sister of Rashida Tlaib, called on Biden to ‘bring a permanent ceasefire and end the unchecked unconditional military aid that is funding a genocide in 2024,’ she told ‘uncommitted’ supporters as the votes came in.

She said activists were telling the U.S. government ‘that funding endless wars is not the path, but there is a better path that saves the children who are being killed … That returns the hostages and prisoners. There is a better path of diplomacy and peace and not a genocide. This is not a messaging problem. This has become a bombs problem,’ said ‘Listen to Michigan organizer Lexis Zeidan. ‘We have a huge victory tonight,’ said former Rep. Andy Levin told the crowd. This is a victory of American democracy tonight,’ he added. ‘Our message to the president is clear. There is no time to waste. We need a permanent cease fire right now,’ he said.

‘It is not lost on me that this president has softened his language and begun to recognize Palestinian suffering,’ said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (pictured). ‘But what is not enough is lip service. What we need is a complete withdrawal of support for the most radical and tyrannical government in Israel’s history. I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic ballot and vote uncommitted,’ Tlaib said in a video she posted Tuesday afternoon.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud blasted Biden for commenting Monday on the latest talks for a cease fire while the president was eating an ice cream cone. ‘I don’t look to lip service or words. I’m looking for action,’ he told DailyMail.com outside a polling place. Khalid Turaani, a co-founder of the ‘Abandon Biden’ movement, predicted thousands would vote for ‘uncommitted.’ ‘I think 10,000 is reasonable and I think we will achieve that,’ he told DailyMail.com as he passed out sample ballots featuring ‘uncommitted.’

Out of the first six people he spoke to, in English and Arabic outside a polling place, ‘only one person didn’t say that he wasn’t going to vote uncommitted. He wasn’t talkative.’ Ten thousand is roughly the number Biden defeated Donald Trump by in 2020, in a demonstration of the influence Arab American voters could have on the November election. It’s the number activist group ‘Listen to Michigan’ has identified as a goal. But ‘uncommitted’ has racked up larger tallies in recent Democratic presidential primaries. Uncommitted got about 20,000 against President Barack Obama in 2012, and a similar amount when Hillary Clinton was battling Bernie Sanders in 2016 and four years later when Sanders was challenging Biden.

State party leaders aren’t publicly panicking. The Biden campaign organized a press call just as most of the state’s polls closed to reassure the media. Members of the Michigan state Democratic party ‘know how to beat Donald Trump. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again,’ state chair Chair Lavora Barnes told reporters. Former Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, a leader in the push for ‘uncommitted,’ said he doesn’t want Donald ‘to ever get anywhere near the White House ever again.’

But he told DailyMail.com at an ‘uncommitted’ watch party that Biden’s problems are much more than tactical, after the president was criticized for failing to meet with Arab American leaders on his visit here as resentment grew. ‘It’s not because they didn’t come early enough or they didn’t do enough … This is not a political problem. He can’t solve it with like, really good surrogates.’ He said Biden or any other Democrat ‘isn’t going to win without Michigan,’ and that ‘Joe Biden can’t win Michigan without changing course.’

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