The President won the Democratic primary easily, with more than eighty per cent of the vote, but more than a hundred thousand protest voters have made the war in Gaza an issue in his campaign. ![A volunteer holds a "Vote Uncommitted" sign outside of a polling station at Oakman School in Dearborn.]()
As the votesfrom the Michigan primary started to stream in on Tuesday night, I spoke to a progressive Democrat who runs a nonprofit organization that has maintained friendly ties with the Biden White House. Although the final results were still hours away, it was already clear that, in some parts of the state—particularly Dearborn, which is majority Arab American, and Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is situated—large numbers of Democrats had voted “uncommitted” as a protest against the Administration’s pro-Israel stance in the war in Gaza. The Democrat, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, said that Biden’s current policy stance on Gaza wasn’t sustainable going forward. Particularly among young progressive activists, feelings on the issue “are still incredibly intense,” the Democrat said, and Biden’s efforts to bring about another temporary ceasefire hadn’t assuaged them. In 2020, Biden’s “genius” had been to build a broad Democratic coalition, by inviting in many of Bernie Sanders’s supporters, but that hadn’t happened in this instance. The person went on: “I think they have been hoping that Biden’s considerable achievements on the economy will carry them through with young progressive voters, but I am concerned that it won’t.” | 
