‘Uncommitted’ Effort to Protest Biden Will Shift Its Focus to Washington State

After gaining some traction in Michigan and Minnesota, the next stop in the campaign to protest President Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza will be the Washington State primary next Tuesday.

Like in Michigan, which has a large Arab American population, and Minnesota, where there is a significant population of East African immigrants and their children, the Washington State effort is counting on Middle Eastern immigrants and progressives to serve as a moral voice against America’s foreign policy alliance with Israel.

Rami Al-Kabra, a Palestinian-American who is a City Council member in the Seattle suburb of Bothell, said activists have been reaching out to immigrant communities and others who have expressed disillusionment with Democrats.

Some, he said, had thrown away their mail ballots, feeling like they did not have a voice. But after learning of the option to vote “uncommitted,” they have requested replacement ballots to submit.

“It gives them hope that they can make an impact and let the president and party hear their voice,” he said. “The snowball is growing.”

The effort in Washington State received a key endorsement last week from one of the state’s largest labor unions, a part of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents 50,000 supermarket employees. On Tuesday, a Seattle chapter of the American Federation of Teachers also endorsed the “uncommitted” campaign.