For months, anger has been growing in the Democratic Party over President Biden’s support of Israel in the Gaza war. Protesters shouted at his campaign rallies, marched in front of the White House and denounced him on social media as “Genocide Joe.”
Now next week’s Michigan primary will put that discontent on the ballot for the first time, as Mr. Biden’s liberal critics urge Democrats to vote against him “non-bindingly.” Some of the president’s allies fear that a movement expressing disapproval against him now could have lasting effects on the general election – especially if Mr. Biden does not change his stance on the conflict.
Michigan’s combination of early primaries, a large and politically active Arab-American population, progressive students on college campuses and the possibility of protest voting have raised the stakes of an otherwise sleepy election in the state.
For Mr. Biden, there are warning signs that frustration over Gaza has spread beyond Dearborn and other Detroit suburbs that are the heart of Michigan’s Arab diaspora to the state’s college campuses, where students are increasingly feeling connected to the Palestinian cause .
In some Michigan communities where there is not a large Arab-American presence, crowds have demanded that their local governments issue ceasefire orders. Last week, the Detroit Metro Times, an alternative weekly newspaper, endorsed “no-strings-attached” voting in the primary.
There are no public polls indicating how much support Mr. Biden’s “non-binding” push might garner, but Democrats at the highest levels of Michigan politics have warned – most of them privately – that the president is at risk of losing the vote Losing state to him Former President Donald J. Trump will decide whether those who disagree with his Israel policy stay home or vote for a third-party candidate.
“Every vote that doesn’t support Joe Biden increases the likelihood that we have a Trump presidency,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a co-chair of Mr. Biden’s campaign. “Every vote that isn’t cast, is cast for a third party, or sends a message increases the likelihood of a Trump presidency.”
The campaign to vote “non-binding” was announced this month by Layla Elabed, a sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American progressive who last weekend became the first member of Michigan’s congressional delegation to call for voting against Mr. Biden in the primary voices.
Ms. Tlaib’s endorsement sparked concern among Biden supporters in the state’s congressional delegation, who fear it will be difficult to convince voters energized by the “non-binding” push in the primaries to support Mr. Biden in the primary November to support.
But in Michigan, few Democratic officials are willing to risk backlash by criticizing efforts to vote “without commitment.”
“The Muslim community and the Arab-American community are obviously very upset, and understandably so,” said Rep. Shri Thanedar, a Democrat from Detroit. “You know, about 30,000 innocent civilians were killed, including women and children. So the concern is understandable. They use this time to attract attention, say something and make arguments. And I really don’t blame them.”
However, Mr. Thanedar said he would vote for Mr. Biden because “I am not a single voter.”
Michigan Democrats expressed uncertainty about how many people will vote “non-binding” in Tuesday’s primary election. As the Biden campaign prepares for Arab Americans and young progressive voters to take on the president in the primary, Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the campaign, stressed that union members, suburban women and black voters remain supportive.
“His investments in infrastructure and green energy have created thousands of union jobs. He went to the strike line with the UAW. “He is committed to reproductive rights, an issue that motivated hundreds of thousands of Michiganders to move statehouse in the midterm elections,” Ms. Hitt said of Mr. Biden. “He recently met with black voters in Detroit to discuss his administration’s efforts to bring black unemployment to record lows. And he is working tirelessly to create a just, lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Two weeks ago, Mr. Biden’s White House sent a delegation of senior advisers to Dearborn to try to ease tensions with Michigan’s Arab American community. Jon Finer, a deputy national security adviser, told local leaders that the Biden administration had made “missteps” in its dealings with Israel and Gaza and left “a very damaging impression.”
The same day, Mr. Biden declared that Israel had “overreached” in its response to the October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people.
But students, Arab Americans and other Michigan residents said in interviews that Mr. Biden’s alliance with the Israeli government was unforgivable and would prevent them from voting for him in November unless he called for a ceasefire and stopped American aid for halted Israel’s war effort. Perhaps even more worrying for the president, who is trying to win over skeptical young voters, is the fact that students without family ties to the Middle East described their advocacy for the Palestinian cause as part of their social identity.
Ruthy Lynch, 21, a student from Traverse City, Michigan, said she didn’t know much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
Ms. Lynch now wears a black and white scarf, known as a kaffiyeh, on campus to show friends and others that she is on the side of the Palestinians.
“I wear it as a sign of solidarity,” Ms. Lynch said. “It feels good to walk around campus. I also see other people wearing kaffiyehs and we are trying to somehow normalize that and give more visibility to solidarity with the Palestinians.”
Ms. Lynch said she voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 but would not do so in November unless he called for a ceasefire and stopped U.S. military aid to Israel. “I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it,” she said.
A Fox News poll of registered voters released last week showed Mr. Biden trailing Mr. Trump by nearly two percentage points in a head-to-head matchup in Michigan. With third-party and independent candidates included, Mr. Trump’s lead grew to five points.
Abbas Alawieh, a former congressman from Dearborn who helped organize the Listen to Michigan group that is spearheading the “non-binding” initiative, said it was Mr. Biden, not those who protested his foreign policy, who were affecting his electoral prospects endangered.
“President Biden has put himself in danger in a general election by ensuring that his Gaza policy is indistinguishable from Netanyahu’s most murderous instincts and actions,” Alawieh said after the rally in Ann Arbor, referring to the Israeli Prime Minister. “He’s already lost people, and we’re trying to tell him that if you take a different approach, people here in Michigan need to see that. “Help us prevent Trump from becoming president.”
Mr. Biden’s political toxicity in Ann Arbor and Dearborn was evident in his campaign planning this week. Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to visit Grand Rapids on Thursday, and the campaign sent surrogates including former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Reps. Sara Jacobs of California and Joyce Beatty of Ohio to address voters – they are However, no events were planned in the congressional district, which includes Ann Arbor.
Instead, Representative Ro Khanna of California is hosting an event on Thursday, with posters throughout the University of Michigan campus calling it a “ceasefire town hall,” and is scheduled to appear with Ms. Tlaib in Dearborn on Thursday evening. There is no mention of Mr. Khanna’s role as a Biden surrogate – a conspicuous omission to avoid publicizing his affiliation with the president’s campaign.
“If the situation in Gaza and our political approach do not change, we risk losing,” Mr. Khanna said. “Every day that bombs fall on innocent children and women in Palestine is not a good day for our party and our future.”
Listen to Michigan has set a public goal of 10,000 votes – slightly less than the margin by which Mr. Trump won the state in 2016, but about half the number of “non-binding” votes in Michigan’s 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries. Our Revolution, the political group founded by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders said it was seeking 10 percent of the primary vote. (Mr. Sanders has denied the effort, a spokeswoman said.)
While the “disengaged” supporters have held events in Dearborn and on Michigan college campuses, they have not established a presence in Detroit’s black neighborhoods. Branden Snyder, the executive director of Detroit Action, a progressive organizing group in the city, said voters there would be more inclined to support a Biden protest if the focus was on domestic issues.
“There are a lot of Black and brown people who are unhappy with Biden’s policies and are watching Biden spend resources abroad instead of at home on issues we care about,” he said. “If messaging was really focused on these individuals, there would be serious concerns.”
Some voters in Michigan say Mr. Biden has already lost their support in the general election.
Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an Iranian-American environmental toxicologist from Ann Arbor who has repeatedly run for local office, handed out business cards Tuesday highlighting her recent City Council campaign. Their agenda includes cleaning up the city’s contaminated water, establishing a $15 municipal minimum wage – and calling on Congress to “stop funding Israeli wars.”
Dr. Savabieasfahani, 64, said she would not support Mr. Biden even if it would help Mr. Trump return to the White House.
“We cannot be held hostage between two terrible choices,” she said. “Choose between these two older white men who don’t know what you want and don’t agree with what you want.”
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2024-02-22 10:04:19
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