Joe Biden faces dissent over Gaza as he wins Democratic Michigan primary

Joe Biden comfortably won the Democratic primary in Michigan on Tuesday, despite significant defections from a group of voters in his party angry at his support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Progressive activists and Arab-American leaders had urged Democrats in Michigan to vote “uncommitted” rather than support Biden in the primary, in a warning sign for his expected re-election bid against Donald Trump in a crucial swing state.

The dissent within his own party in Michigan has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges for Biden’s campaign over the past few weeks, raising fears among some Democrats that the president will struggle to unite their centre-left coalition around his candidacy in November.

The backlash within Biden’s party over Gaza has also thrust foreign policy into the heart of the race for the White House, along with other top issues like immigration, the economy, the future of US democracy, and the character of the candidates.

At 10.25pm Eastern time, with 25 per cent of the Democratic votes counted across Michigan, Biden was winning 79.7 per cent, while 14.6 per cent had picked “uncommitted”. Long-shot candidates Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson each had less than 3 per cent.

Separately in Michigan, Trump notched up another comfortable victory in the race for the Republican presidential nomination against Nikki Haley, his former US ambassador to the UN, bringing him another step closer to locking up his party’s support.

At 10.25pm, Trump had won 67 per cent of the Republican vote, while Haley had won 28.1 per cent — showing that he also faces defections from within his party.

The protest on the Democratic side is a reaction to Biden’s continued support for Israel during the conflict in Gaza, where almost 30,000 people have died, according to Palestinian officials, since Israel declared war on Hamas in response to the militant group’s October 7 attack.

“President Biden has funded the bombs falling on the family members of people right here in Michigan,” said Layla Elabed, campaign manager for Listen to Michigan, one group with the goal of getting at least 15 per cent of voters to cast “uncommitted” ballots. “Thousands of Michigan Democrats who voted for Biden in 2020 now feel completely betrayed.”

Listen to Michigan has called for a ceasefire in the enclave and for the Biden administration to stop providing funding to Israel.

Michigan is a battleground state that has been decided by narrow margins in recent election cycles. Biden defeated Donald Trump there in 2020 by just 150,000 votes, while Trump defeated Hillary Clinton four years earlier by fewer than 11,000 votes.

Just over half of the people living in Dearborn, a suburb of the state’s biggest city Detroit, are Arab-American, according to the latest census data. About 140,000 Arab-Americans voted in Michigan in the 2020 presidential election.

Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American member of Congress whose district includes much of Dearborn, was among those encouraging Democrats to lodge a protest vote. Elabed, the campaign manager for Listen to Michigan, is Tlaib’s sister.

“I was proud today to walk in and pull a Democratic ballot and vote uncommitted,” Tlaib said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday. “When 74 per cent of Democrats in Michigan support a ceasefire, yet president Biden is not hearing us, this is the way we can use our democracy to say, listen.”

Biden, who spent decades in the US Senate, has long been a staunch supporter of Israel.

But he has been increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks, while senior White House officials and secretary of state Antony Blinken have also deplored the death toll in Gaza.

Biden told reporters on Monday that he was hopeful a temporary ceasefire could begin in the enclave as soon as next week.

But Democratic voters, especially younger and more progressive ones, have become increasingly disillusioned with the Biden administration’s stance on the conflict. Their disapproval has weighed on the president’s polling numbers as he gears up for November’s election.

Recent opinion polls have put Trump ahead of Biden in a hypothetical match-up in Michigan. An Emerson survey published last week showed him leading by a four-point margin in the state.

Several of Biden’s public events have been interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters in recent weeks, and the death at the weekend of a US airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington made headlines across the country.

The Biden campaign has spent relatively little time in Michigan compared with other early primary states, namely South Carolina. He last visited Michigan on February 1, where he met carworkers.

Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s Democratic governor who was re-elected in 2022, is a co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign and has been among his loudest defenders in the state.

“I understand the pain that people are feeling,” Whitmer told CNN this week, referring to the conflict in Gaza. But she added: “Any vote that is not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term . . . this was a man who promoted a Muslim ban. This is, I think, a very high-stakes moment.”

Trump’s campaigning in Michigan has focused on blue-collar workers, especially in the car industry, which is a dominant force in the state’s economy. Biden has also courted the backing of organised labour in Michigan, and last month the United Auto Workers union endorsed his re-election bid.