Protest Vote Over Biden’s Israel Policy Could Pose Big Problems For The President

President Joe Biden easily won the Democratic Primary in Michigan on Tuesday. But the organization Listen to Michigan sent a shot across his bow that will be hard for the president to ignore.

Listen to Michigan is a grassroots campaign led by local organizers that urged Michigan Democrats to withhold their vote for Biden and instead vote “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s primaries to send the message that Democrats are unhappy with Biden’s handling of Israel’s siege on Palestine. Biden has backed Israel’s “right to defend itself,” and has twice bypassed Congress to sell the nation American-made weapons and ammunition.

The organization set out with the goal of 10,000 uncommitted votes, 1,000 shy of the number of votes Trump won the state by in 2016, and managed to get 100,000 votes, a whopping 13% of all votes in the primary. Uncommitted even beat Biden in Dearborn and Hammtramck counties. Counties where Muslims and Arab-Americans make up nearly 50% of the population.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (D) said about the protest vote, “Yesterday was a resounding victory. This is not just an Arab or Muslim issue now, this is an American issue now.”

He then addressed the president, “It is my hope Mr. President that you listen to us, that you choose Democracy over tyranny.”

The organization’s campaign manager Layla Elabed, sister of Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Michigan), who has voiced her own support for the movement, said that some progressive voters cannot support Biden’s reelection because they “feel burned” by his support for Israel, and that if he does not shift his position, and soon, it would be, “The Biden administration handing the White House over because we’ve been abandoned by Biden.”

Biden has not acknowledged the protest vote, but on Thursday, Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, discussed it in an interview with NPR. He was quick to follow the establishment Democrat’s playbook when they face pushback from progressives and dangled the threat of a Trump presidency.

When asked how the current administration is going to convince disgruntled voters to back their reelection, Landrieu said, “We are going to continue to talk to them and ask them to think about the choices and what the consequences are about electing someone who wants to have a Muslim ban, electing someone who is going to be much much worse than the difficult circumstances we have right now.”

Throughout the interview, he continued to drive home the point that the Middle East is “a very difficult issue.”

But Elabed said in a response to the interview, “It’s deeply offensive that President Biden keeps suggesting he has a messaging issue among Arab-Americans and young people, rather than a funding bombs issue.”

The campaign made it even more clear in a tweet that they are not interested in a lesser of two evils argument, and that they want the Democratic president currently in power to take a stand.

Please stop using Donald Trump as your human shield, @JoeBiden.

We understand the threat of Donald Trump against our communities more than anyone.

We don’t understand your weapons funding for Israel’s war in Gaza and occupation against the Palestinian people.

— #ListenToMichigan (@Listen2michigan) February 29, 2024