Wisconsin presents latest test for Biden and progressives over Gaza war

As another slew of states held primary elections on Tuesday, President Joe Biden faces his latest scorecard from Democratic voters.

With both parties having concluded the “competitive” portions of the primary season and Mr Biden having wrapped up his party’s nomination the same as his opponent, Donald Trump, attention has shifted to down-ballot races and a growing protest vote movement centred around progressive resistance to the president’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Tonight, the battleground shifts to Wisconsin, a bastion of progressive organising in the Midwest. It’s the latest arena where supporters of calls for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip are urging Democratic voters to turn out and vote “uninstructed” in their party’s primary — an essentially ceremonial protest vote that will still send a message to the Biden campaign, one way or the other, regarding his support from key demographics.

Wisconsin’s vote total tonight gained new importance over the past 48 hours with the killing of seven aid workers with celebrity chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen humanitarian group in Gaza; the aid convoy was not in a combat zone but was nevertheless hit by successive Israeli strikes, according to the group, after their location had been shared with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). The slain aid workers included an American citizen. Israeli officials released a statement on Tuesday calling the strike an “accident”.

The state is one of several Mr Biden won back from Republicans in 2020 after Donald Trump’s victory there four years before. Efforts to build support for the “uninstructed” vote, which have grown to include 20 locally-elected Democratic officials, are focused in the urban areas