(Stephen Horn, Headline USA) Would a Harris–Walz victory in November be the “worst case scenario”? An “Abandon Harris” campaign is attempting to convince far-left voters to drop Vice President Kamala Harris in November over her support for Israel.
The organization, which began as “Abandon Biden” held a press conference Friday in front of the North Carolina Democratic Party headquarters announcing the “doubling down on [their] efforts” to ensure Harris’s defeat.
PRESS CONFERENCE: "Abandon Biden" campaign transitions to "Abandon Harris" as Palestine supporters call on voters to choose 3rd party socialist candidates over "genocidal" Democrats pic.twitter.com/qVQjYwRDPV
— Stephen Horn (@stephenehorn) September 6, 2024
“Biden was an ideological bigot: He believed the lives of Palestinians were cheap,” said Pooyan Ordoubadi, a co-chair of Abandon Harris in NC. “Harris may be worse: She’s an opportunistic bigot, thinking that the dehumanization of Palestinians and support for their genocide will fill her electoral coffers.”
North Carolina, like many more liberal states, has experienced pro-Palestine protests, demonstrations, and riots in its cities and universities.
Ordoubadi, an immigration and criminal defense lawyer, is currently representing 37 of the defendants arrested at the University of North Carolina in relation to a “Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in April. (The protest garnered national attention after a group of UNC fraternity brothers rescued the American flag that demonstrators had removed and replaced with a Palestinian one.)
With President Joe Biden as the only candidate on the 2024 Democratic presidential primary ballot in North Carolina, campaigns like Abandon Biden encouraged supporters to select “No Preference.”
The North Carolina Board of Elections recorded 88,900 voters (12.73%) choosing this option, a larger percentage than any other state, according to Axios.
With a victory margin of only 74,483 by President Trump in the 2020 election, convincing those “No Preference” voters could be enough to be influence the assignment of the state’s 16 electors.
Several of the speakers addressed common two-party narrative around third-party votes: “We are told … if you don’t vote Democrat, the Republicans are going to be worse … I have to say that sounds a lot like the language of an abusive relationship,” said Dr. Rania Masri, who has previously described the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel as “a beautiful day”.
“It will be the worst case scenario if Kamala Harris wins,” Masri continued. “More wars will come, but they will come with liberal applause and joy and glee.”
“The idea of a Trump presidency does not scare us because … there is no greater evil in this world than genocide, and Kamala Harris has made it abundantly clear that her support for Israel will not waver,” said Victor Urquiza of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).
"The idea of a Trump presidency does not scare us because there is no greater evil in this world…than genocide, and Kamala Harris has made it abundantly clear that her support for Israel will not waver", says Victor Urquiza of the Party for Socialism and Liberation
"We are… pic.twitter.com/ELYsUcaLfP
— Stephen Horn (@stephenehorn) September 6, 2024
Instead, Urquiza encouraged the “working class” to cast their vote for a socialist this November: either Jill Stein or Cornel West, who will appear on the North Carolina ballot for the Green Party and the Justice For All Party respectively, or Claudia De La Cruz who is running as a write-in candidate for the PSL.
Raleigh-based journalist Stephen Horn can be found on Twitter at @stephenehorn or on Substack (“This Week in the Triangle”).
