‘Uncommitted’ wins 2 Democratic delegates in Michigan, a victory for Biden’s anti-war opponents

LANSING, Michigan: “Uncommitted” got enough votes to win two delegates in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, as an effort organized to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza made its voice heard in the key swing state.

While Biden won the state with more than 618,000 votes, more than 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters cast ballots for “uncommitted” in the race, enough to pick up the pair of delegates — one from the 6th District, centered around Ann Arbor, and the other from the 12th District, which includes Detroit suburbs with large blocs of Arab Americans.

The vote totals raise concerns for Democrats in a state Biden won by only 154,000 votes in 2020. Biden was beaten by the “uncommitted” vote in both Dearborn and Hamtramck, where Arab Americans make up close to half the population.

Some local Democrats such as US Rep Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, had advocated for “uncommitted” votes to convey a message to Biden. Organizers of the “uncommitted” campaign, who had purposely set expectations low with a goal of at least 10,000 votes, celebrated Tuesday’s results as a win.

Biden still won 115 delegates on Tuesday and is well on his way to clinching the nomination over marginal competition.

In 2012, during Barack Obama’s reelection bid, the “uncommitted” option received nearly 21,000 votes, representing 11 percentage points. The “uncommitted” vote totals in both 2016 and 2020 – when the Democratic primaries were contested – hovered around 20,000, which was less than 2 percentage points.

“Yesterday was a resounding victory,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said Wednesday. “This is not just an Arab or Muslim issue now. This is an American issue now.”

“It’s my hope, Mr. President, that you listen to us, that you choose democracy over tyranny,” said Hammoud.

Unofficial results put the “uncommitted” total at close to 13 per cent of overall vote in the Democratic primary.