President Joe Biden faces another uncommitted ballot test Tuesday in Pennsylvania as more than 500,000 voters, including in other key swing states have already cast protest votes against him in Democrat nominating contests across the country.
The Democratic Socialists of America helped a larger coalition in leading an uncommitted effort in Pennsylvania in the build-up to Tuesday’s primary, WHYY noted, as arab-Americans, muslims, young voters, and far-left progressives have joined in what has become a national movement protesting Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
The movement is threatening Biden’s reelection odds, as it remains to be seen how many of these voters he can win back– especially as some say they will never vote for him again.
And it persists despite his becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and after he demanded an “immediate ceasefire” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 4, days after nearly 50,000 voted “Uninstructed” against him in the Wisconsin Democrat primary.
That figure is twice the margin he beat former President Donald Trump by in 2020.
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The Uncommitted PA group’s goal is to reach 40,000 write-in votes in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the Penn-Capital Star and WHYY reported. Miracle Jones, a volunteer organizer, told WHYY that the campaign has reached 50,000 voters. The goal is nearly half the 81,660-vote margin Biden beat former President Donald Trump by in 2020.
“I think it’s important that we use the reflective democracy to show our disdain for what’s happening and our opposition and this tool, the uncommitted campaign is one of the ways that we’re able to engage in the electoral process and directly talk to those who are representing us,” Jones said.
The vote is also coming just days after the House passed a foreign aid supplemental bill that appropriates nearly $27 billion for Israel, including defense funds, on the heels of Iran’s aerial attack. Biden has said he will sign this bill and the others in Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) $95 billion foreign aid package “immediately” if and when they pass the Senate.
Uncommitted PA’s website emphasizes the campaign is to show Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are “actively losing their base”:
We are using our votes to demonstrate to the Biden-Harris Administration that their support is dependent on their ability to stand with the majority of voters in their calls for immediate and lasting ceasefire in Palestine. Let’s show the Democratic Party and Biden that they’re actively losing their base that they need to win the 2024 election by not calling for a ceasefire.
The movement began with the Listen to Michigan campaign, whose goal was to get 10,000 protest votes against Biden in the crucial swing state’s primary to demand a ceasefire and protest his handling of the war. The group smashed its aim, as over 100,000 Michiganders voted uncommitted in the Democrat primary. The movement spread like wildfire to other states and has racked up as many as 25 delegates through 500,000 votes nationwide, the Nation’s John Nichols reports.
Biden’s next test will be in Maryland’s May 14 Democrat primary, where the “Listen to Maryland” coalition is leading an uncommitted campaign. Its website underscores that if “uncommitted” garners more than 15 percent of the vote share next month, it will earn delegates,
