President Joe Biden, as expected, waltzed to easy victories on Super Tuesday, yet he could not escape a growing concern for his 2024 White House bid: “uncommitted” votes protesting the president’s handling of the situation in Gaza and beyond.
Last Tuesday, in Michigan, more than 100,000 Democrats voted for “uncommitted” over Biden, accounting for 13.2% of all ballots cast in that contest.
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And Biden again faced a large number of protest votes Tuesday night. Of the 15 states and territories voting on Super Tuesday, seven presented options of “uncommitted,” “no preference,” or “noncommitted delegate” on the ballot, and most saw a significant bump in those non-Biden votes compared to their tallies in the 2020 primaries and caucuses.
Biden’s most concerning margin appeared in North Carolina, a critical swing state that the president lost in 2020 but frequently claimed by Democrats to be extremely winnable in 2024 following the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. With about 90% of the vote in, the Tar Heel State saw 12.5% of Democrats voting for “no preference” Tuesday night, compared to 1.64% in 2020.
Minnesota accounted for the largest jump in “uncommitted” Democratic primary votes, exploding from .35% in 2020 to 20% in 2024 with about three-fourths of the vote in.
In Alabama, 6% of Democratic voters backed “uncommitted” with three-fourths of the votes counted, up from less than 1% in 2020.
Colorado did not provide an uncommitted option in 2020, yet 7% of Democratic primary participants voted for “noncommitted delegate” in 2024 with more than three-fourths of the vote in.
Iowa, a state that saw Biden place a distant fourth place last cycle, saw 3.9% of caucusgoers supporting “uncommitted” this year compared to just 0.82% in 2020.
Nearly 10% of Massachusetts Democrats voted for “no preference” over Biden with about half the votes counted, while that same option pulled in less than a half-percentage point last cycle.
Tennessee saw 8% of Democrats vote “uncommitted” Tuesday night with 80% of the vote in, up from 0.23% in 2020.
Michigan has one of the largest Arab and Muslim American populations in the country, and much had been made in recent weeks about how Biden’s support for Israel’s offensive was losing him support from that demographic and the progressive wing of the party.
The Biden campaign and White House sought to downplay the protest vote in Michigan, noting that the president’s team was engaged in conversations with Arab and Muslim American community leaders about the war and that the administration was actively pushing for another ceasefire in the fighting ahead of Ramadan in March.
“We understand how personal this is, how this moment is incredibly painful, and we’re going to continue to have those conversations, and we’re going to make sure that we continue to listen and continue to engage,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Feb. 28. “As I mentioned earlier before, this is why it’s important to get this hostage deal, and it will be accompanied with a temporary ceasefire, and so we want to see that done. We want to see that moving forward. The president is going to continue to work on that 24/7, and let’s not forget we’re going to continue to work on making sure there is a two-state solution as well.”
“We take these conversations very seriously, and without getting into specific details or disclosing some of the things that we’ve been hearing, we are taking them on board,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of the administration’s dialogue with the Arab and Muslim American community. “We are willing to adjust the way we’re approaching the conflict and the way we’re talking about the conflict.”
Democratic strategists familiar with Biden’s campaign strategy told the Washington Examiner that the crowded 2020 primary field likely attributed to the low number of “uncommitted votes” and additionally predicted that the Democratic base would eventually rally behind Biden when presented with the “reality of the alternative” presented by likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in the general election.
“The president hears the voters participating in the uncommitted campaigns,” Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt added in a statement. “He shares their goal for an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace — and he’s working tirelessly to that end.”
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Biden will likely face similar protest votes in Democrats’ next two primaries, Georgia and Washington, on March 12.
*EDITOR’S NOTE: Primary votes were still being calculated as of Tuesday night and will be updated.
