Minnesota Democratic ‘uncommitted’ vote nears 20% in latest Biden rebuke
President Biden sailed to victory in Tuesday’s Minnesota Democratic primary, but he was once again vexed by thousands of voters who marked themselves as “uncommitted”.
With 95% of the expected vote tabulated, 70.5% of voters backed Biden while 19.0% went uncommitted, according to a tabulation by The Associated Press.
Disgruntled progressive activists and organizations have embarked on a campaign to push voters to mark themselves “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas War.
Last week, more than 101,000 Michiganders — 13.2% of the Democratic primary — went “uncommitted” in protest of the lack of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
In Minnesota, more than 45,000 marked themselves “uncommitted” — a number greater than the margin by which Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the state in 2016.
While Michigan is home to the largest Arab-American community in the US, Minnesota’s Twin Cities boast a large Somali-American community as well as a surplus of college-educated white progressives who are more likely to advocate for the Palestinian cause.
In addition to Minnesota, Biden faced a sizable protest vote in North Carolina. With 97% of the Tar Heel State vote in, nearly 88,000 — 12.7% of the Democratic primary electorate — had marked themselves as having “no preference”.
Biden has been making overtures to disaffected progressives, sharpening his language against Israel — including by calling its retaliation against Hamas for the bloody Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack “over the top.”
Over the weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris called for a six-week cease-fire during a speech in Selma, Alabama.
“People in Gaza are starving, conditions inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act,” Harris said Sunday. “Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table.”
While Minnesota has not supported a Republican for president since Richard Nixon in 1972 and is likely to keep that streak going in November, Michigan went for Trump in 2016 before narrowly swinging back to Biden four years later.
Publicly, Biden’s campaign has downplayed concerns about his electoral prospects and lackluster polling numbers relative to Trump, with the commander-in-chief’s allies insisting that both he and other Democrats have outperformed expectations in recent votes.
“Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear choice,” Biden said in a statement. “Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?”
