'Uncommitted' Campaign Makes Final Push as Michigan Primary Voters Hit the Polls

The Listen to Michigan campaign made its final appeals as the swing state's Democrats headed to polling stations for the primary on Tuesday, urging them to vote "uncommitted" to pressure President Joe Biden into supporting an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Israel's U.S.-backed war on the Gaza Strip.

Since launching just three weeks ago, Listen to Michigan has picked up support from key figures across the state and beyond, from Our Revolution and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud to former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) and current Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in Congress.

Tlaib—whose sister, Dearborn community organizer Layla Elabed, is leading Listen to Michigan—shared a video circulated by the campaign on social media after she cast her vote.

"We must protect our democracy. We must make sure that our government is about us, about the people, when 74% of Democrats in Michigan support a cease-fire, yet President Biden is not hearing us," Tlaib said. "This is the way we can use our democracy to say, listen. Listen to Michigan, listen to the families right now that have been directly impacted, but also listen to the majority of Americans who are saying enough. No more wars, no more using our dollars to fund a genocide, no more."

"So please, take your family members," she urged Michigan residents, noting that she was joined at the polls by her 18-year-old son. "Use our democratic process to speak up about your core values, where you want to see our country go."

Elabed said in a statement that "with an ambitious yet critical goal of garnering 10,000 'uncommitted' votes, we aim to demonstrate that a significant voting bloc within Michigan is uncommitted to President Biden's reelection efforts."

The campaign leader pointed out that 10,000 votes is about the same margin that former President Donald Trump—the likely Republican nominee for this cycle—had over Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, in the state in 2016.

"Voting uncommitted isn't just symbolic; it represents the electoral margins that could determine President Biden's electoral fate in November 2024," Elabed stressed. "The path to the White House runs through Michigan and Michigan runs through Dearborn and Detroit. Michigan Democrats and our diverse, multifaith coalition have already made our demands for cease-fire and ending funding for war and occupation clear."

Asked about the effort during a televised NBC News interview on Monday, Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is serving as a co-chair for Biden's reelection campaign, said, "I think there will be a sizable number of votes for uncommitted," and 10,000 is "possible."

While acknowledging the right of voters to make their voices heard and that "there's a lot of pain" in Michigan's Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, and Jewish communities, she also urged voters to support Biden at the polls, warning that "anything other than that makes it more likely we see a second Trump term."

That tracks with messaging guidance that the Biden campaign issued ahead of the primary, according to Politico. One unnamed elected official said: "The Biden campaign wants me to tell you that any vote not for Biden is a vote for Donald Trump... I'm not gonna go that hard... I mean, they're like, 'Donald Trump never killed us, Joe Biden killed our families.'"

Since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed around 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million residents, and devastated civilian infrastructure—provoking widespread allegations of genocide that are currently before the International Court of Justice.

While negotiating for a temporary pause in fighting and exchange of prisoners and hostages, the Biden administration has also blocked and opposed United Nations cease-fire resolutions, bypassed Congress to arm Israeli forces, and sought more than $14 billion on top of the nearly $4 billion that Israel gets in annual military aid from the U.S.

As The New York Times reported Tuesday:

The White House did dispatch a high-ranking team to meet in private this month with Arab American officials in Dearborn, at which a senior foreign policy aide acknowledged "missteps" on the administration's foreign policy and public messaging about the conflict in Gaza.

Other would-be Biden surrogates were asked to travel to Michigan and declined because they did not want to engage with Gaza protesters, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The Biden campaign declined to comment for this article.

The newspaper also noted that "for some context, there were about 20,000 votes for 'uncommitted' in each of the last two Democratic presidential primaries in Michigan that featured robust and competitive fields."

Elabed pointed out that "uncommitted voters in Dearborn have already reported being given independent ballots instead of Democratic Party ballots from poll workers when saying: 'We want to vote uncommitted.'"

"This confusion could likely dampen turnout," the Listen to Michigan leader warned. "We're watching closely."