‘Uncommitted’ Campaign Looks To Amplify Pressure on Biden in Primaries Beyond Super Tuesday

Despite being a last-minute effort, the “uncommitted” voters managed to win significant minorities of the Democratic primary vote in a few states, all but guaranteeing that “uncommitted” voters will be represented at the Democratic Convention this summer.The “uncommitted” campaign grew out of the Listen to Michigan campaign, put together as a protest vote movement aimed at expressing support for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and expressing discontent with President Biden’s handling of the situation.On Super Tuesday, the “uncommitted” campaign sought to parlay its Michigan primary success, where the group turned out more than 100,000 Democratic primary voters to vote “uncommitted,” into broader support across the remaining primary states.On Tuesday, “uncommitted” saw relative success, especially in North Carolina and Minnesota. In North Carolina, more than 88,000 voters, or about 13 percent of the vote, supported “no preference.” In Minnesota, nearly 46,000 voters supported “uncommitted,” accounting for nearly 19 percent of the vote.“Uncommitted” also found support in Massachusetts, with about 56,000 voters choosing “no preference,” about 9 percent of the vote, and Colorado, with 43,000 votes and 8 percent support.In Alabama, Tennessee, and Iowa, “uncommitted” drew the support of 6 percent, 8 percent, and 4 percent of Democratic primary voters, respectively.In the other states that held their Democratic primary on Tuesday — Maine, Vermont, Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas, and California — there was no option to vote for either “uncommitted” or “no preference.”Though Mr. Biden won every competition easily, the support for “uncommitted” means that there will almost certainly be “uncommitted” delegates at the party convention at Chicago. Though delegates have not yet been officially allocated, in Minnesota, any candidate that receives more than 15 percent support receives delegates from the state.Though the broader “uncommitted” push originated from the Listen to Michigan campaign, other national organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America have since picked up the protest vote movement and are organizing in upcoming primary states.“Yesterday nearly 200,000 voted uncommitted in seven primaries sending another strong message,” the DSA said in a statement. “There is still a lot of work to be done in Washington, Wyoming, and beyond.”Already, organizers in New York have begun working on a campaign to encourage Democratic primary voters in the Empire State to leave their ballots blank as a protest vote against Mr. Biden. One DSA member, Aaron Fernando, tells the Sun that the protest vote is “an important tool” for voters to signal to Mr. Biden that “There are huge pockets of discontent Biden needs to win in these swing states, and it’s clear he’s not taking that seriously.”“The momentum is there, and he needs those votes to beat Trump, or he’s going to lose,” Mr. Fernando says. “Looking at the results it’s clear that there’s a strong Trump coalition. Biden — that’s not assured at all.”It’s not just the DSA organizing the “uncommitted” campaign, however. In one state, Illinois, nine organizations from both inside and outside the state are organizing an attempt to express discontent with Mr. Biden.

‘Uncommitted’ Campaign Looks To Amplify Pressure on Biden in Primaries Beyond Super Tuesday

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