Each primary brings American voters a little closer to a new face-to-face between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential election of November 2024. The current president and his predecessor in the White House both won the election by a wide margin. Michigan primary, Tuesday, February 27.
The vote in this industrial state in the north of the United States was closely observed on the Democratic side because the result could resemble a warning for Joe Biden. If, according to initial estimates, the American president largely wins over his main competitor, one of the representatives of Minnesota in the House, Dean Phillips, he sees the emergence of a worrying blank vote (“uncommitted”not committed).
At the call of part of the Arab and Muslim community of this state, the largest in the country, Democratic voters in Michigan were called upon to choose this ballot to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the support provided by the White House to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. The vote “uncommitted” is an option regularly offered to voters in the state to gauge support, or not, for a specific candidate.
According to initial estimates, more than 20,000 “uncommitted” votes were placed in the ballot box. This is already twice as much as the goal set by the activists behind the “Listen to Michigan” campaign. (Listen to Michigan), to deliver a “powerful and unequivocal message” that the financing and support of the war in Gaza is “in contradiction with the values of the Democratic Party”. “Our movement was victorious this evening and far exceeded our expectations”, underlined “Listen to Michigan” in a press release. Their goal is to pressure the US president to call for an immediate ceasefire and end his support for Israel.
A key state in the race for the White House
As civilian casualties rise in the conflict between Israel and Hamas – more than 30,000 Gazans have been killed – Joe Biden has seen his support erode significantly among Muslims and Arab Americans. However, this population was crucial to him in 2020 against Donald Trump in Michigan.
Michigan is considered a swing state (“swing state”) for the American presidential election, being neither a Democratic nor a Republican stronghold. In 2020, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump there with a lead of only 150,000 votes.
For his part, the former president once again established himself on Tuesday, with a large lead over his ultimate rival, the former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, during the Republican primary, organized simultaneously, thus consolidating his status. favorite for the nomination of the “Grand Old Party” (GOP). But a third of Republican voters rejected the real estate mogul’s candidacy.
Doubt therefore remains over Mr. Trump’s ability to convince the majority of moderate voters in the Republican Party, whose support will be significant if he is indeed nominated as candidate for the November election. Especially since Nikki Haley, despite her defeat on February 24, in her home state, South Carolina, refuses to give up, saying she does not believe that Donald Trump can defeat Joe Biden.