Young Wisconsin progressives lead the latest protest vote against Biden over Gaza

MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden may have the 2024 Democratic nomination sewn up, but his critics on the left are still aiming to use a primary in a key battleground state to send him a message.

Biden, who has faced protest vote campaigns in several states this year over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, is now confronting one in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary. Young progressives are leading the movement to vote “uninstructed,” the term on the Wisconsin ballot to vote for no candidate or “uncommitted,” to register their opposition to the administration’s response to the situation in Gaza.

Young voters in Democratic strongholds such as Madison and Milwaukee were critical to Biden’s victory in Wisconsin — and the Electoral College overall — in 2020, and they want to make clear to the president that he can’t take them for granted this time around. The Listen to Wisconsin campaign’s goal is to convince 20,000 voters to cast their Democratic primary ballots for “uninstructed,” which was roughly Biden’s margin of victory over then-President Donald Trump in the state four years ago.

Halah Ahmad, a Palestinian American activist and spokesperson for Listen to Wisconsin, has been working with a group of 20 elected officials, students and other grassroots organizations to get the word out about the uninstructed movement since the campaign launched March 19.

Ahmad voted for Biden in the 2020 general election after supporting Bernie Sanders in the primary. She said she was unsure how she would vote in the fall.

“I feel really betrayed by the party leadership,” she said. “I think history will be on our side but, for now, if I want to participate in this democracy, the uninstructed campaign is my only option.”

Wisconsin’s primaries