The Uncommitted Campaign Plans to Send Biden a Message This Super Tuesday
Michigan was just the start. Efforts are underway in multiple states today to tell Biden he must change his policy of unflagging support for Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
Julia Conley
With more than 100,000 Michigan voters having cast primary ballots letting U.S. President Joe Biden know they are “uncommitted” to supporting him in the general election due to his continued support for Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza, organizers of the effort are spreading their campaign to other states.
Voters in Colorado, Minnesota, and North Carolina are among those whose primary votes will be tallied this Super Tuesday, and all three states have “uncommitted” or similar language as an option on their ballots.
The Listen to Michigan campaign started organizing less than a month in advance of Michigan’s Feb. 27 primary, gathering support from leaders including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and former congressman Andy Levin in hopes that they could convince at least 10,000 voters to mark “uncommitted” on their primary ballots to warn Biden that he must end military funding for Israel and push the country to agree to a permanent cease-fire.
With more than three-quarters of Democrats in the United States backing a cease-fire, the campaign drew more than 10 times the amount of support it expected, and more than 13% of Michigan Democrats who took part in the primary voted “uncommitted.”
“We are going to be talking to other states that are looking for a unifying vehicle to send the same message to Joe Biden,” Layla Elabed, campaign manager for Listen to Michigan, told reporters. “This issue of Gaza is not just a Michigan issue, it is an issue across the United States. So our plan is to work with other coalitions like Listen to Michigan.”
According to Hammoud, organizers in other states with upcoming primaries have reached out to Listen to Michigan “to follow their strategy.”
As recently reported, campaigners in Washington state are urging voters to write “cease-fire” on their primary ballots ahead of that state’s March 12 election.
In Colorado, concerns about Biden’s support for Israel — which has now killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza and decimated civilian infrastructure across the enclave even as it claims to be targeting Hamas fighters — helped push the state Democratic Party’s executive committee to vote unanimously in December in favor of including a “noncommitted” line on primary ballots.
Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said last Thursday that Armenian-American campaigners in key states including Wisconsin, Arizona, and Pennsylvania are leading efforts to push people to vote “uncommitted.”
More than 206,000 Armenian-Americans in swing states “are perfectly positioned to play a high-impact role,” said the Armenian National Committee of America.
“Over 100,000 sent Biden a clear message in Michigan,” said Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the Jewish-led Palestinian rights group IfNotNow. “Now the fight moves on.”
This story was first posted at Common Dreams.
Views expressed are those of the writer. As a 501©3 nonprofit, In These Times does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.
SPECIAL DEAL: Subscribe to our award-winning print magazine, a publication Bernie Sanders calls "unapologetically on the side of social and economic justice," for just $1 an issue! That means you'll get 10 issues a year for $9.95.
Julia Conley is a Maine-based staff writer for Common Dreams.
