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Voters in front of a polling station in Detroit on Tuesday

Photo: Dieu-Nalio Chery / REUTERS

They had set a modest goal: 10,000 votes.

But they far exceeded it: When more than half of the votes had been counted at half past one in the night, there were more than 65,000 who did not vote for Joe Biden in the primary election for the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, but rather checked the “uncommitted” box « had checked – neutral, unbound.

Nevertheless, Joe Biden won the primary election in the state of Michigan and, as expected, will take almost all of the delegate votes with him to the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August.

Why is the number of these undecided people so significant that all national and many international television stations reported on Michigan on Tuesday evening - even though, for once, it wasn't primarily about Donald Trump?

Michigan is currently one of a handful of “swing states,” shaky and therefore crucial states for which it is not already practically clear whether they will go to the Democratic or Republican candidate in the presidential election in November.

In 2016, the Republican Donald Trump won the state by 10,704 votes over Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 the Democrat Joe Biden won the state by 154,188 votes against Trump - a very close decision in the first case and a close one in the second.

Michigan is a must-win state

Michigan has a unique demographic.

More than 200,000 Americans of Arab descent live here, more than any other US state.

Most of them traditionally vote Democratic.

“The Muslim community here,” says Layla Elabed, “wholeheartedly supported Joe Biden in 2020.

It gave him the victory he needed in Michigan." Whether it was actually just the Muslim community that secured his election victory in Michigan in 2020 cannot be statistically proven.

But it is realistic that Biden, who is currently behind Trump in the polls, could lose the “must-win” state in 2024 if voters of Arab origin no longer support him.

People like Layla Elabed want to use this leverage.

The 35-year-old activist, sister of Rashida Tlaib, the only US congresswoman with Palestinian roots, is, like many in her community, bitter about Joe Biden and his Middle East policies.

She accuses the president of politically and militarily supporting "Israel's aggression against Gaza" and complains that he is not doing enough to enforce an "immediate and lasting ceasefire."

That's why she launched the "Listen to Michigan" campaign in her hometown of Dearborn near Detroit a few weeks ago - with the aim of convincing at least 10,000 Democratic voters not to vote for Biden in the primary election.

A number of other left-leaning groups and celebrities joined the call, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Michigan filmmaker Michael Moore and supporters of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

It took a while for the Biden administration to realize the danger here.

In early February, the White House sent a high-level delegation to Dearborn to apologize to representatives of the Arab community and explain the administration's Middle East policy - a highly unusual step ahead of a U.S. primary election.

"We are acutely aware that we have made missteps in responding to this crisis since October 7th," said Biden's deputy national security adviser Jon Feiner, according to a transcript of the meeting published by the New York Times: The The administration "left a very bad impression" and did not make it publicly clear "how much the president, the government and the country value the lives of Palestinians."

And that started, frankly, quite early in the conflict."

That didn't convince people in Dearborn.

Finally, Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan, who is said to have ambitions to one day become president, intervened.

She pointed out to the protest camp a fact that had occasionally been lost in the heated primary election mood in Michigan: "Every vote that is not cast for Joe Biden," she warned, "supports a second term for Trump." Voters should not forget how Trump dealt with Muslims - for example in 2017 with a widespread entry ban.

Layla Elabed also admits this.

“Under Trump, the US embassy in Israel was even moved to Jerusalem,” she says.

»But Joe Biden promised us that everything would be completely different under him.

As we now see, that is not true. She can well imagine that many in her community would no longer be able to bring themselves to vote for Biden again.

"I don't know how I'll vote in November," says Elabed.

»But I hope that the pressure from our campaign will persuade Biden to save lives.

Because that's what we're all about: We want to save lives.

And if you want our support, then you have to listen to your voters.«

In any case, he checked “uncommitted,” says Ali Hallal, 29, as he left his polling station in Dearborn Heights on Tuesday.

He also doesn't want to decide what he will do in November.

"To be honest, I'm not concerned about November at the moment, but about today." On Monday he saw the pictures of a US Air Force soldier who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy and shouted "Free Palestine."

The death of this soldier moved him more deeply than the scene that evening when President Joe Biden announced in an ice cream parlor in New York that there might soon be a ceasefire.