A majority of Democrat residential primary voters in Dearborn, Michigan, voted "uncommitted" over President Joe Biden to register their objections to his handling of Israel's war in Gaza.
Biden and former President Donald Trump won the Michigan primaries on Tuesday, further cementing the chances of a rematch between the two in November's general election. But results from Dearborn, where nearly half of residents claim Arab ancestry, send a message about one of Biden's biggest vulnerabilities ahead of November's voting.
With 47 out of the city's 48 precincts reporting results, the "uncommitted" vote in Dearborn was 56 per cent while Biden had received 40 percent, according to results posted on the city clerk's website. The difference was more than 1,700 votes.
A robust campaign, called Listen to Michigan, began just a few weeks ago to encourage voters to select "uncommitted" as a way to pressure Biden to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
On its website, the campaign said it wanted to "demonstrate our political power and discontent" through uncommitted votes in an effort to make Biden "feel more at risk of losing Michigan in the general election, prompting a potential reassessment of his financing and backing of Israel's war in Gaza."
Almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas' October 7 attack, The Associated Press reports, citing Palestinian health officials.
Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, and nearly half of Dearborn's roughly 110,000 residents claim Arab ancestry.
"Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations," Listen to Michigan posted on X, formerly Twitter, early Wednesday. "Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom who voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza."
Both White House and Biden campaign officials have traveled to Michigan in recent weeks to talk with community leaders about how Biden has approached the Israel-Hamas war, but leaders have not been persuaded.
"Little bit of advice - if you're planning on sending campaign officials to convince the Arab American community on why they should vote for your candidate, don't do it on the same day you announce selling fighter jets to the tyrants murdering our family members," Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud wrote on X in January.
On Tuesday night, he posted a photo of his Democratic primary ballot, showing he voted uncommitted instead of for Biden and encouraged others to do the same.
"For our grandfather Khaled and the soul of his soul Reem, for the 100,000 killed, wounded, and missing, for the hope of a free Palestine," Hammoud wrote.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, also supported the campaign. The Michigan Democrats said in a video posted on X that she was "proud" to pull a Democratic ballot and vote "uncommitted."
Mitch Landrieu, a former Biden administration senior adviser and current national co-chair for Biden's reelection campaign, acknowledged that "uncommitted" voters in Michigan had sent a message.
"Joe Biden had a really, really strong night tonight. You can't cut it any other way than that," Landrieu said on CNN. "That is not to say that the uncommitted vote wasn't substantial."
In a statement, Biden did not acknowledge the "uncommitted" effort, instead promoting what his administration has done for the people of Michigan.
"For all of this progress, there is so much left to do," he said, warning that Trump is "threatening to drag us even further into the past as he pursues revenge and retribution."
He added: "This fight for our freedoms, for working families, and for Democracy is going to take all of us coming together. I know that we will."
Update 2/28/24, 3:35 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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