As expected, President Joe Biden handily won Michigan’s Democratic primary election on Tuesday. But all eyes were on the Great Lakes State to see if a grassroots campaign urging people to vote “uncommitted” in protest of his handling of the war in Gaza could gain traction here, with Michigan becoming more influential in the national race after moving its primary election to earlier in the year.
Launched by leaders from metro Detroit’s large Arab American community who call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the “Listen to Michigan” campaign bet that Democrats opposed to the war would turn out for the protest vote, but it wasn’t initially clear what benchmark would be considered a success. (There are some 200,000 Arab American voters in Michigan, while Biden beat Trump by about 150,000 votes in the 2020 general election.) Publicly, the campaign set a goal of 10,000 “uncommitted” votes, though that was an inadequate gauge; there were about 20,000 uncommitted voters in each of Michigan’s past three primary elections. So to make a statement, tens of thousands of Michiganders would have to vote “uncommitted” this time.
The campaign declared victory Tuesday evening, and the final tally revealed more than 100,000 votes for “uncommitted” — enough for the campaign to send two delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Meanwhile, Biden earned 617,728 votes, Trump earned 755,909 votes, and Republican challenger Nikki Haley earned 294,334 votes.
“Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations,” the campaign said in a statement. “Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza.”
The group says a ceasefire is the first step necessary in negotiations to achieve peace, to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of all hostages and prisoners. Around 130 hostages abducted from Israel by Hamas in October are still held captivity in Gaza.
Critics warned if these voters don’t support Biden in November that the Listen to Michigan campaign could help Trump, whose authoritarian bent would be worse for Gaza, Arab Americans, and democracy.
But in a video statement, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the most prominent supporters of Listen to Michigan, said the campaign was about participating in democracy to make its supporters’ voices heard.
“We must protect our democracy, we must make sure that our government is about us, about the people,” she said, adding, “This is the way we can use our democracy to say, ‘Listen. Listen to Michigan.’”
Tlaib said that she was proud to bring her 18-year-old son to vote for the first time ever on Tuesday. Her sister Layla Elabed is a campaign manager for Listen to Michigan.
A similar group, the “Abandon Biden” campaign, declared victory well before polls even closed on Tuesday, saying that it had campaigners posted in Dearborn, the center of metro Detroit’s Arab American community, and “not a single person has said that they will vote for Biden,” the campaign’s Hassan Abdel Salam told Metro Times via email.
“Whereas Biden won by 90% in 2020, there will be virtually no support this year for Biden,” he said. “It is not an understatement to say that this is an earthquake.” In Dearborn, “uncommitted” got more votes than Biden.
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, who endorsed the Listen to Michigan campaign and famously predicted Trump would win in 2016, also anticipated a big turnout.
“This is a movement that’s only about two weeks old and it has caught on fire, let me tell you, my friends,” he said on his podcast Rumble with Michael Moore. “I’m just telling you this as a Michigander, there are people by the thousands who are going to vote.”
On Tuesday, Politico reported that Biden’s campaign was privately “freaking out about the uncommitted vote” in Michigan. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Governor Whitmer — a loyal Biden ally who has repeated the talking point claiming that anything other than a vote for Biden in the primary will help Trump in November — expressed empathy for the uncommitted voters while speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday.
“Today, I anticipate that we will see a sizable number of people vote uncommitted,” she said, adding, “There’s a lot of people who are hurting.”
When asked how Biden can win these voters back in November, Whitmer said, “It’s going to be important that the administration continue to engage with leaders and individuals in the Palestinian community, the Muslim community, the Arab American community, as well as the Jewish community.”
Andy Levin, a Jewish former congressman who also supported the Listen to Michigan campaign, said that Biden must heed the warning and push harder for a ceasefire.
“Joe Biden can get the vast majority of these people to vote for him if he changes course,” Levin said, according to The New York Times. “If he doesn’t change course, there’s nothing I can do to get folks to vote for him.”
Israel’s bombing in Gaza has killed more than 30,000 people, with many more at risk of starvation and illness.
This article was updated with more recent results from the primary election.
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