16% of Democratic voters in Michigan chose “non-committed” against Biden (French)

Voices of protest denouncing the devastating Israeli war in the Gaza Strip overshadowed the easy victory of US President Joe Biden in the primary elections to obtain the nomination for the Democratic Party in the state of Michigan on Tuesday, as the vote included - according to Reuters and the French press - a message of rebuke from Americans of Arab descent. In protest against Biden's pro-Israel stance in its ongoing war on Gaza since last October.

After the polls closed on Tuesday evening, the counties reported in preliminary results that 16% of Democrats in the state voted by choosing “non-committed” instead of giving their vote to Biden, as part of a campaign to persuade the US President to withdraw his support for Israel.

Reuters reported opinion polls after voters left the Democratic voting centers, indicating that the number of those who voted “non-compliant” reached about 40,000, a number that exceeds what the organizers of the Biden boycott campaign set by four times.

It is worth noting that in the last two electoral cycles, the percentage of “non-compliant” did not exceed 2%, while it reached 11% the last time a sitting Democratic president sought re-election, when Barack Obama won in 2012.

to retreat

Biden (81 years old) does not face any serious opposition to his candidacy for a second term in the White House.

But as the number of Palestinian civilian martyrs increased in the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, his support declined among Muslims and Arab Americans, a bloc that narrowly decided his victory in Michigan in 2020 over former Republican President Donald Trump.

The state of Michigan, located in the American Midwest, has the largest percentage of residents who identify themselves as being of Middle Eastern or North African origin in the country, most of whom are concentrated around Detroit.

Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, said, “I felt proud today to withdraw a ballot for the Democratic Party and vote ‘noncompliant’.”

She added in a recording on social media, “74% of Democrats in Michigan support a ceasefire, but President Biden is not listening to us. This way we can use democracy to say (Listen to Michigan).”

This did not prevent Biden from easily obtaining the Democratic Party nomination, as the results of his main competitor, Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, are low in the opinion polls.

But a large number of protest votes could raise concerns ahead of the next November general election.

Protest voting in Michigan by Arab and Muslim voters raises concerns for Democrats (Anatolia)

Trump wins

The result of the primary elections for the Republican Party was also devoid of suspense, as the Republicans announced Donald Trump’s early victory in their elections, which are divided into two stages and will only conclude at the end of the week. Trump swept the results of the states that voted early, and it is not expected that Michigan will impede his progress towards obtaining the vote. Party nomination.

His only remaining rival, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, lost in her home state of South Carolina last weekend, but she refused to back down, saying that she did not believe Trump was capable of defeating Biden.

Haley suffered another blow - last Sunday - when the wealthy Koch family announced that it had stopped donations to its campaign.

Both parties organized the elections yesterday, Tuesday, in Michigan, although the Republicans adopted a complex hybrid system that concludes the competition after 4 days through party groupings similar to the People's Electoral Councils (COX) in each of the state's 13 regions.

On March 2, more than two-thirds of the Republican delegates, who are individuals appointed by each state to support candidates at the party's summer convention to choose the presidential candidate, will be selected.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies