The movement objecting to President Biden’s position on Israel by voting “uncommitted” drew a significant share of the vote on Tuesday in Minnesota despite having a hastily organized and low-budget campaign.
With nearly 80 percent of ballots counted on Tuesday night, “uncommitted” had earned 19 percent support, enough to send delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The number of protest votes in Minnesota suggested that dissatisfaction over Mr. Biden’s stance on the war in Gaza had spread beyond Muslim Americans to progressives and younger voters.
The state’s contest was just one of several across the nation on Super Tuesday in which Democrats registered unhappiness with the president.
In North Carolina, 12 percent of voters had cast ballots for “no preference” with more than 95 percent of the vote counted. In Massachusetts, “no preference” had earned nearly 9 percent with more than half the vote in. Last week in Michigan, more than 100,000 people — 13 percent of voters — supported “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary, winning at least two delegates.
The last-minute campaign in Minnesota was assembled by a coalition of Muslim voters and progressive Democrats who are angry with Mr. Biden for his alliance with Israel.
“Our goal is to get the president’s attention, and we are doing that,” Asma Mohammed, one of the effort’s organizers, said at a watch party in Minneapolis as the results came in. The crowd broke into chants of “Free Palestine!” as the number of “uncommitted” votes kept rising.
The organizers had less time and money than their Michigan counterparts, whom they said had helped inspire their efforts. They began their campaign roughly a week before the primary, with early voting already underway, and said they spent about $20,000. In Michigan, organizers were able to spread their message for three weeks, and raised about $200,000. They also benefited from the endorsement of influential supporters, like Representative Rashida Tlaib, the Detroit-area Democrat, and from a populous Arab American community.
Still, Minnesota’s large population of Somali Americans, progressives and late-deciding voters with a history of backing quirky independent candidates allowed “uncommitted” to put up a strong showing.
While Minnesota has a history of supporting unconventional candidates — it elected Jesse Ventura as governor, sent Al Franken to the Senate and backed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary — there isn’t much history against which to gauge Tuesday’s “uncommitted” vote. The last incumbent Democratic president, Barack Obama, won Minnesota’s caucuses in 2012. In 2020, just 2,613 Minnesota Democrats picked “uncommitted.”
Representative Dean Phillips, a Democrat from the state running a long-shot presidential campaign, also drew a share of the vote away from Mr. Biden. Late Tuesday, he was earning 8 percent.
Whether the dissatisfaction with Mr. Biden registered by Minnesota’s primary voters will damage Mr. Biden in the general election is another question. In 2012, “uncommitted” won double-digit percentages against Mr. Obama in primary contests in Alabama, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Tennessee. None of those states, however, had organized protest efforts, and none, like Michigan and Minnesota, were competitive in November.
“Uncommitted” supporters have said their movement — which spread across the Super Tuesday states in the days leading up to the primaries — is influencing policy. The Biden administration has lately signaled its support for a cease-fire with more urgency.
With its striking share of the vote in Minnesota, the “uncommitted” movement has exposed a weakness in Mr. Biden’s re-election bid: Many of those who supported him in 2020 do not believe that his policies have helped them.
“Gaza is the main thing, but he hasn’t done anything on jobs, gas prices and the border,” said Mudi Ali, 41, who voted…
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