Biden wins Democratic primary in Michigan but gets high opposition vote for his policy on Gaza | USA election

United States President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in Michigan and Donald Trump won the Republican primary. So far, predictable. But as the count progressed, it became clear that the White House tenant received a strong vote of punishment for his pro-Israel policy in the Gaza war. A significant percentage of Democratic ballots marked…

United States President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in Michigan and Donald Trump won the Republican primary. So far, predictable. But as the count progressed, it became clear that the White House tenant received a strong vote of punishment for his pro-Israel policy in the Gaza war. A significant percentage of Democratic ballots marked the “undeclared” box, the equivalent of a blank vote. Campaigns launched by the Arab-American community — huge in this state — and progressive groups believed Biden had warned that a lack of a permanent ceasefire could cost him the White House.

The first hours of counting showed that the “undeclared” option received more support than the margin of about 11,000 votes with which Trump won in Michigan over Hillary Clinton in 2016, the objective set by campaign organizers. They also surpassed the 20,000 “undeclared” number of the state’s last three Democratic presidential primaries. With 58% of the votes counted, the rebel vote exceeded 66,000 ballots or 13%. Biden won Michigan by 150,000 votes in 2020.

“We have put human life before sport. We put human life before the president,” congratulated Abdullah Mohamed, mayor of the city of Dearborn, one of the Democratic politicians, during the counting of the results. Dearborn, a city outside Detroit where 55% of the population is of North African or Middle Eastern descent, is the birthplace of the campaign, which Biden wants to show that in order to win Michigan, the key to his electoral path continues. In the White House, he needs a vote that calls for a ceasefire. In Wayne County, where Dearborn is located, the “unreported” vote reached 75%.

In a statement about the primary results, Biden did not mention the “Listen to Michigan” campaign or unreported votes. Neither did his election campaign, in another statement. The president has chosen to focus on criticism of the policies of his closest Republican rival, Donald Trump, concluding that “we all need to come together in this fight for our freedoms, for working families, and for democracy. I know we will.” .”

The polling stations closed at 8:00 pm (2:00 pm Spanish Peninsular time on Wednesday) after being open for twelve hours. In Dearborn, early morning crowds swelled in the afternoon. More than a million people in a state of ten million inhabitants voted in advance; In Dearborn, election officials said turnout was higher than expected. “We are running out of voter registration forms,” ​​they indicated in Precinct No. 2, with an hour and a half left for polling to end.

“We want to show that we are an electoral group to be reckoned with,” Dearborn’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, said at a polling station during the day. “It’s our parents, our brothers, our families and friends who are being bombed…. “We want to use this opportunity, we have to send a message: until the president changes his policy, he not only his presidency, but ultimately American democracy with the election of Donald Trump,” continued. “This community feels betrayed. “We elected a president to lead with humanity, with decency, with compassion, and we got the opposite. .”

Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.

Subscribe

The American president, who took a decisive side with Israel at the beginning of the war in Gaza, has gradually revised his position, although he maintains his resistance to a permanent cease-fire and continues to send arms to Israel. In recent weeks he has declared that the Israeli government has “gone too far” in its war in the Strip, where nearly 30,000 Palestinians have died, sanctioned Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and warned against an offensive in Rafah. The last Gazan city to attack. On Monday, he expressed hope to conclude a temporary ceasefire within a week that could serve as the first step towards a permanent ceasefire.

Dearborn voters announced the gesture will not change their position. “Too little, too late,” said Khalid Turani, one of the organizers of the Michigan Task Force on Palestine and the “Abandon Biden” movement, which promotes the defeat of the American president in the upcoming November elections. Mayor Hammoud was also skeptical: “It’s strange that it’s time to talk about a ceasefire when you’re eating ice cream. And meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented his cabinet with a plan to invade Rafah during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Michigan is key to the aspirations of both Democrats and Republicans. Trump won the state by just 10,000 votes in 2016. Biden took it from him in 2020 by 150,000 ballots. The state has a population of 300,000 residents of Arab origin, which four years ago leaned overwhelmingly (64%) in favor of the incumbent president.

“Four years ago I voted for Biden. This time I’m going to vote for Trump,” said unemployed Imad Said, 48, as he left his polling station in Dearborn. His motivation, he claimed, was not just the events in Gaza. “Crime is up, a lot of money is being sent to Ukraine. And here’s what’s lacking… America first,” he noted, repeating slogans Trump made famous.

A total of more than 10% of “undeclared” votes would be an important warning to Biden in a state that, in addition to supporting him in 2020, has a Democratic majority in its local legislature and state governorship. The president has the support of the UAW, the influential automobile workers’ union, which carries heavy political weight in a state that accounts for 20% of the nation’s total vehicle production.

“We will continue to highlight the differences between Biden and Trump and, once they become clear, we believe that voters who distanced themselves from Biden will come back,” the union’s regional director, Lashon English, told Reuters.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Biden’s campaign co-chair, has warned that a conviction vote against the president now could translate into a Trump victory in November. He also indicated in statements to the MSNBC television network that “it will be important for the administration to continue to engage with leaders and individuals in the Palestinian, Muslim, Arab American, and Jewish communities.”

On the Republican side, Haley’s tally shows the extent to which a portion of these voters harbor doubts about a second term for Trump, who polls have given him a 57 percentage point advantage over his rival. With 62% counted, the former president received half a million votes, 67.8%, while the former South Carolina governor was at 27% with 199,075 ballots. The significance of the data was relative, however: Only 30% of Michigan’s delegates would now be awarded at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. The remaining 70 will have to wait until Saturday, when the party will hold its state convention. Or, rather, conventions: the inner divisions formed two groups which convened different meetings in two different cities.

Before the recount began, and soon after the polls closed, Haley revealed to the CNN television network that she would remain in the race: “We’ve only seen votes from a handful of states. “We’re going to fight state by state.”

Follow all information about elections in the United States Our weekly newsletter.