WASHINGTON — A group of Palestinian supporters are trying to get Democratic voters to cast their ballots for “uncommitted” in the April 23 presidential party primary.
The UncommittedPA campaign is the latest move by opponents of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. Israel has retaliated by bombarding the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as it seeks to destroy the U.S.-designated terrorist group that has threatened to annihilate the Jewish state.
The UncommittedPA website says it is “paid for by the Democratic Socialists of America.”
A number of politicians who had been affiliated with the DSA distanced themselves from the group after Oct. 7, because of statements from the group that were widely perceived to be antisemitic.
UncommittedPA did not respond to a request for comment.
Another group, Abandon Biden, is supporting a similar write-in campaign against the president. “We will save America from itself and punish Mr. Biden at the ballot box,” said Jaylani Hussein of the national Abandon Biden coalition.
The efforts are similar to the one launched in Michigan, another swing state, that garnered 13.2% of the Democratic primary vote, or more than 101,000 votes, and thereby two delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August. Mr. Biden won the Feb. 27 Michigan primary with more than 623,000 votes, or 81.1%, and captured the remaining 115 convention delegates.
The last time a Democratic president ran for re-election, Barack Obama in 2012, 10.7% voted uncommitted in Michigan. In Minnesota, the percentage of uncommitted voters rose from 3.7% in the 2012 caucuses to 19% in the 2024 primary. Both states have large Arab American populations.
In four other states — Alabama, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Tennessee — the percentage of uncommitted voters declined from 2012 to 2024, according to the Washington Post.
“Israel is fighting a just battle in a moral way against Hamas terrorism,” said Marshall Wittman, a spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group. “That is why the vast majority of Americans from both parties stand with the Jewish state in its fight against terror.”
Pennsylvania has more Jewish residents than all but four other states — more than 430,000 Jewish residents, behind only New York, California, Florida and New Jersey, according to the American Jewish Year Book.
UncommittedPA said in a statement that its goal was to have more than 40,000 Democrats to write in “uncommitted” rather than vote for Mr. Biden. That would be half as much as the 80,000-vote edge by which Mr. Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 Pennsylvania general election.
The group called for ending aid to Israel, imposing an immediate and permanent ceasefire, ending the siege of Gaza, and reinstating humanitarian aid and U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees.
Congress cut off funding for the agency, some of whose employees were accused by Israel as participating in the Oct. 7 attack, in the just-enacted law funding the federal government through Sept. 30.
Many supporters of Israel say they support a ceasefire too, but not one that leaves Hamas in power in Gaza and in possession of more than 100 remaining Israeli hostages captured on Oct. 7.
Some expressed concern that an effort to attack Mr. Biden could return Mr. Trump to the White House.
“I am very concerned about the uncommitted effort,” said Marjorie Manne, who lives in Squirrel Hill and is active in the Jewish community. “It’s shortsighted, and it’s out of touch with the mainstream of the Democratic Party.”
She said that supporters of the president are “working hard to defend democracy and working hard to make sure Biden gets re-elected in 2024. It feels like we’re pushing a boulder uphill when we have far-left progressives undermining that effort.”
The Biden administration has worked to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza — including building a temporary pier to deliver as many as 2 million meals a day — but has opposed a unilateral ceasefire without the release of at least some hostages.
“If Hamas just handed over the elderly, the women, and the wounded tomorrow, there would be a six-week ceasefire," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at a White House press briefing last week.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that the administration remained “committed to supporting Israel in its fight against Hamas, which has said it wants to repeat October 7th again and again until Israel is annihilated, because we cannot expect Israel to accept a situation in which their citizens continue to live under active threat.”
In addition, she said it was “critical that Israel do whatever possible to prevent civilian casualties and to conduct operations as strategically and precisely as possible in target operations to protect civilians.”
Nathan Diament, executive director for public policy at the Orthodox Union, suggested Tuesday that Hamas didn’t want to have to release the hostages as part of a ceasefire.
"Many analysts believe that part of Hamas’ strategy has been to hold out while international pressure forces Israel ultimately to yield,” Mr. Diament said.
The debate has spilled over into the Democratic primary contest between U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, and Edgewood Borough Council member Bhavini Patel.
An Instagram account linked by Jewish Insider to one of Ms. Lee’s staff members has touted the uncommitted effort.
While Ms. Lee did not respond to a request for comment, Ms. Patel came out against the effort to get Democrats to vote uncommitted, saying it could only benefit Mr. Trump.
“Summer Lee must immediately call on her fringe friends and staff to cease and desist in their efforts to organize against President Biden,” Ms. Patel said. “In the Trump era, Democrats must unite behind our president, but Summer Lee wants to ‘dismantle’ our party and is perfectly comfortable deploying her extremist supporters and staff to jeopardize our freedoms and democracy as we know it.”
Jonathan D. Salant, jsalant@post-gazette.com, @JDSalant
First Published: March 26, 2024, 11:44 p.m.
Updated: March 27, 2024, 2:04 p.m.
