The campaign to get Democrats to vote “uncommitted” as a protest against President Joe Biden’s foreign policy had a significant impact in the Minnesota primary but had mixed results in other state primaries on Super Tuesday.
In Minnesota, the Listen to Minnesota campaign, which calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, had set a modest expectation of 5,000 uncommitted votes but ended up with over 45,900 uncommitted votes, resulting in 11 uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
However, the campaign kept its expected numbers for other states close to the chest. In Iowa, the uncommitted campaign modestly outperformed its results from 2012, with 4 percent of Democrats voting uncommitted, compared to 1 percent in 2012.
Democratic Primaries on Super Tuesday (Credits: Greenville Online)
In Massachusetts, around 9 percent of Democrats voted “no preference,” slightly lower than in 2012. In North Carolina, around 12 percent voted uncommitted, down from 20 percent in 2012.
The campaign began in Michigan as a way for Arab Americans and other supporters of Palestinian rights to show their dissatisfaction with Biden’s foreign policy.
Listen to Michigan, which had a quarter-million-dollar budget and the endorsement of Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, resulted in 100,000 uncommitted votes and two uncommitted delegates in the state.
Despite the last-minute nature of the campaigns, there is no sign of factions attempting to claim uncommitted votes for other causes. The focus of the campaigns has been on the U.S. role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with organizers emphasizing the need for Biden to change his policies regarding the conflict.
Biden’s administration began to call for a ceasefire in Gaza late last month, a major shift from previous policies. However, organizers of the uncommitted campaign believe that more needs to be done to address the situation in Gaza, and they plan to continue using their votes to send a message to the president.
Other Democratic challengers to Biden, such as Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips, both lost to “uncommitted” in every state where that option was on the ballot. Phillips, in a social media statement, congratulated Biden, Williamson, and Nikki Haley for demonstrating more appeal to Democratic Party loyalists than himself.
