How the ‘Uncommitted’ Effort to Protest Biden Has Spread in Super Tuesday States
Organizers in several Super Tuesday states are calling on voters to oppose President Biden at the ballot box over his stance on the war in Israel and Gaza, building on momentum that began last month in Michigan.
More than 101,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” in the state’s Democratic primary, after a group of young Arab Americans started a campaign encouraging voters to protest Mr. Biden’s alliance with Israel — earning two delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Inspired by the campaign, pro-Palestinian groups around the country started similar efforts to push the president to call for a permanent cease-fire.
In Colorado, a group of Palestinian activists scrambled to create a social media campaign for the state’s “noncommitted delegate” option while Michigan returns were still coming in last week. In Minnesota, organizers knocked on doors and held get-out-the-vote events to promote the “uncommitted” category, with outreach to Muslim Somali Americans and young voters. And in Massachusetts, thousands of protesters at a rally in Cambridge chanted “no preference,” the similar designated protest option.
The campaigns have been fragmented, organized with far less time and resources than Michigan’s operation. Many were planned in a matter of days, well after early voting had already begun, and several organizers declined to articulate specific benchmarks for what would constitute success on Tuesday night beyond the goal of seeing Mr. Biden move his position. (Organizers in Minnesota said they were aiming for 5,000 “Uncommitted” votes, a low target that was about double what the category received in the 2020 Democratic primary).
The other states also lack Michigan’s position in the broader backlash to Mr. Biden’s