On Tuesday, Joe Biden will probably be asleep. Still, Michigan will be holding its primary, and Democratic strategists and White House aides will be focused on one number: the number of those voting ‘uncommitted.’ It’s a protest vote spurred by scores of Muslim voters incensed over the Biden administration’s position concerning the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It’s one of the few issues the Biden White House has gotten correct, though it hasn’t been without its issues—Biden reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “a**hole.”
Muslim voter anger has been raging for weeks, with many declaring they’ll abstain voting for Biden in the 2024 general election. That could potentially put the Rust Belt in play, as members of organized labor are also souring on the president. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer projects a “sizeable” protest vote tomorrow but the threshold isn’t that high. The goal is to get 10,000 to pull the lever for uncommitted, but that number was more than doubled when Obama ran for re-election in 2012 (via NBC News):
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is attempting to smooth over Joe Biden’s rough edges ahead of the primary tomorrow in her home state, where the president is facing significant backlash over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Whitmer, a national co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign, acknowledged in an interview with NBC News on Monday that there will be a “sizable” number of protest votes against the president in Tuesday’s primary, taking place in a critical swing state where the margin of victory in November is expected to be razor thin.
Listen to Michigan, a group advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza, is aiming to get as many people to vote “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s primary as possible to protest Biden’s Middle East policies. The group’s goal: 10,000 votes.
“I think there will be a sizable number of votes for ‘uncommitted,’” Whitmer said. “I think that it is every person’s right to make their statement about what’s important to them.”
But Whitmer shrugged off a question about whether alarm bells should be going off for the Biden campaign in the state looking ahead to the general election.
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Officials with the Biden campaign point out that in 2012, when President Barack Obama ran for re-election, 20,833 people voted “uncommitted” during the Democratic primary. And in 2020, 19,106 people voted “uncommitted.” So, they argue, 10,000 votes for “uncommitted” during this primary is not actually a high threshold.
As we all waited to see who would vote for ‘none of these candidates’ in Nevada regarding Nikki Haley, let’s see if Muslim voter rage translates into a legitimate protest vote that more than surpasses what appears to be a low threshold.
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