(Headline USA) Tens of thousands of Democratic voters cast protest votes against President Joe Biden during Super Tuesday’s elections, selecting an “uncommitted” option on their ballots instead of voting for him, Business Insider reported.
The protest vote campaign began in Michigan, where progressives rallied voters to choose the “uncommitted” option to send a message to the White House about its position on the Israeli/Gaza conflict. More than 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” instead of for Biden.
And on Tuesday, several other states followed suit. In Minnesota, nearly 20% of Democratic voters ended up marking their ballots as “uncommitted” to protest Biden’s continued support for Israel. That’s a number greater than the margin by which Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the state in 2016.
Both Michigan and Minnesota have large Muslim populations.
But a sizable protest vote also extended to Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Tennessee, where tens of thousands of voters likewise refused to support Biden.
In Alabama, more than 11,000 voters, or roughly 6% of the Democratic electorate, voted for “uncommitted.” The option collected the second-most votes in the Democratic primary.
In Colorado, more than 43,000 voters, or roughly 8% of the Democratic vote, marked “Noncommitted Delegate” on the ballot.
In Massachusetts, more than 54,000 voters, or just under 10%, backed “No Preference.”
And in North Carolina, 88,000 voters, or nearly 13%, backed “No Preference.”
The president still easily carried the Democratic nomination in each of these states, but the sheer number of protest votes against him have raised concerns about his reelection chances, especially in the swing states where he narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump in 2020.
In Michigan, for example, the official tally from 2020 reported that Biden beat Trump by roughly 150,000 votes.
“That is a powerful way to send the administration a message,” Christian Peterson, 22, a law student at the University of Minnesota, told Reuters. “Biden needs to stop sending military aid to Israel.”
However, in doing so, he faces a dilemma with the possibility of further alienating Jewish voters, as well as severing ties with one of America’s closest and most strategically important geopolitical allies.
A recent poll revealed that in New York, the majority of Jewish voters may already be backing Trump, a significant shift from 2020, when Biden secured 77% of the Jewish vote nationwide.
