After Michigan, the campaign to punish Biden for his support of Israel’s war in Gaza has only just begun

Joe Biden may have won the Democratic Michigan primary handily yesterday, but anger over his unconditional support for Israel’s war in Gaza led to a significant protest vote that may threaten his chances of winning the state, and the presidency, later this year.

More than 100,000 Democratic presidential primary voters cast their ballots as “uncommitted” on Tuesday following a campaign by activists and lawmakers in the state to impose a political cost on Mr Biden for providing political and financial support for Israel’s war.

In some areas of Dearborn, home to the largest Arab American community in the US, around three quarters of voters chose to cast their ballots as uncommitted.

In a crucial swing state, which Mr Biden only won by 154,000 votes in 2020, those margins could prove to be decisive.

“One hundred thousand uncommitted votes sends a powerful message to the president that he’s got to change course or risk losing to Trump in November,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which was part of the uncommitted campaign, told The Independent.

Mr Geevarghese noted said the campaign to convince voters to cast their ballots for “uncommitted” only began three weeks ago, and that those 100,000 votes may not account for the real number of Democratic voters who may stay home in November.

“Just based on our internal organising there were a lot of people who have given up or don’t think that their voice matters, so I think a lot of people did sit out,” Mr Geevarghese said.

“The White House should interpret that number as 100,000 people speaking for other friends and neighbours who not who did not vote for whatever reason,” he added.

As a Muslim woman, I understand the ramifications of a Trump presidency.