Michigan progressives angry over Gaza urge voters to ditch Biden in primary

Progressive groups and Arab American grassroots organizations in Michigan are taking their protests over President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war to the ballot box ahead of the key battleground state’s primary later this month.

A concerted effort is underway to sway Democrats away from voting for Biden on Feb. 27, with some groups urging their supporters to cast their ballot for “uncommitted.” 

One organized effort, dubbed Abandon Biden, launched in October. It encouraged voters to withhold their vote from Biden in swing state primaries across the U.S. over his actions on the war in the Middle East. The movement grew this week when Our Revolution launched an organized effort telling voters to not commit to Biden, or to former President Trump.

The effort marks the deep anger felt by Arab Americans toward the White House since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, in which Biden has been steadfast in his support of Israel — albeit increasingly disagreeing with its prime minister over its stated goals in the war — and rejected calls for a long-term cease-fire. 

It could spell trouble for Biden, who can’t afford to lose any coalition of voters if he wants to win reelection in November.

The frustration runs so deep that the Abandon Biden movement sees no way Biden can fix the situation and gain back its support, seeing a call for a cease-fire now being too little too late.

“He’s got to do the right thing for the party and for … the country itself, and he should step down as soon as possible because he’s deeply toxic, and we will never ever support him. He can’t do anything for us to support him. No one can tolerate a policy of death that lasts this long; people have to be held to account,” said Hassan Abdel Salam, a member of the Abandon Biden National Coalition.

The Abandon Biden movement is focused on withholding votes from Biden in primaries in battleground states including Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida to empower pro-Palestine Americans to protest via ballot box.

The White House has tried to engage with Arab American groups, particularly those in Michigan, but has been met with canceled meetings, largely failing to change any minds. Officials traveled to Michigan to engage with leaders on the ground earlier this month but, when Biden was in Michigan himself, he didn’t meet with any leaders.

He also didn’t visit Dearborn, the Detroit suburb where Arab Americans make up the majority of the population. A Michigan official, who asked to remain anonymous while talking about sensitive issues, said Biden’s visit was “too late” and that the “community was too angry. Nothing would have come from that discussion.”

The Abandon Biden movement knows what’s at stake in November, when Biden is likely to face Trump, the GOP front-runner who has vowed to reinstate and expand his Muslim ban if elected.

“We found the previous president distasteful,” Salam said. “The previous president prevented our family and our friends and our colleagues from entering the country. But Mr. Biden killed them.”

Meanwhile, Our Revolution, a progressive political organizing group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), joined the fight in Michigan to pressure Biden. But, it, unlike Abandon Biden, sees space for forgiveness.

The group is reaching out to Michiganders to encourage them to pick an “uncommitted” option that will appear on their primary ballots.

“There’s a lot of energy in the base of the Democratic Party on the progressive wing for the administration to take action. The problem is, after months of just protests and petitions, we’re not seeing significant movement. We’ve maybe seen some rhetorical movement, but we have not seen significant movement,” Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese said.

“It was because of that that we decided that we’ve got to do something that packs a punch, something that would send a wake-up call to the White House and get them to pay attention to voters on the ground and what matters to them,” he added.

Former Michigan Rep. Andy Levin (D) is working with Our Revolution on its Michigan initiative. Sanders broke with Our Revolution in a statement to HuffPost on Thursday, saying he was supporting Biden and isn’t part of the group’s decisions.

Biden is running in the Democratic party with no serious contender against him. Geevarghese said because there isn’t “a creditable challenger to push the priorities” — noting that “there is not a Bernie Sanders in the race” — activists have to get the administration to pay attention.

To win back voters, Our Revolution wants to see Biden call for an immediate cease-fire and to use “every tool— rhetorical plus funding” to get the Israelis to rein in their bombardment of Gaza on the ground.

While Biden has taken a firm pro-Israel stance since the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas, he has also called on Israel to be more targeted in its fighting and to protect civilian lives. But, amid fears of a humanitarian catastrophe, Biden is showing few signs that he would punish Israel if it refuses to heed his warnings against launching an offensive in Rafah, where Israel directed people to evacuate to, without plans to protect civilians.

A source familiar with the Biden campaign said it is engaging with Arab American voters but that the biggest voter blocs that led Biden to win Michigan in 2020 were union households, suburban women, and Black voters. The source added, though, that the campaign is concerned about every demographic and hasn’t given up on Arab American voters. 

While the Biden campaign anticipates it may not be an insignificant number withholding their vote in the primary, it is hopeful it will expand their coalition in Michigan before November.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told The Hill in an interview that Michigan’s early primary is a positive in order to have these conversations early.

“I worked for three years to have an early primary; I thought it was really important that issues that will determine the outcome of the election in November be part of the discussion in the early primaries,” she said. “The Feb. 27 primary in Michigan is doing just that.”

Michigan is a critical state for Biden. He won it by 154,000 votes in 2020. More than 200,000 registered voters in the state are Muslim, according to NPR, and additionally, 300,000 Michiganders’ ancestors were immigrants from the Middle East or North Africa.

Biden won 64 percent of the Muslim vote nationally in 2020, and Trump won 35 percent, according to exit polling by The Associated Press.

When asked how critical the situation is on the ground with Michigan voters refusing to support Biden, even against Trump, the Michigan official noted there is a group of “very aggressive” activists for which “nothing will make it OK.” But, the source said, “it’s not true” that it’s a large group, and it isn’t a cause for concern in November.

“It’s not something to panic over, but I think it’s something to take very seriously,” the source said.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes suggested in a statement that voters in the state focus on taking down Trump instead.

“We need to be clear-eyed about the threat Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans pose to working people and the choice Michiganders will face at the ballot box this November: our reproductive freedoms, our economic opportunity, and our democracy are all on the line,” Barnes said.