Uncommitted National Movement

The Uncommitted National Movement is a protest campaign aimed mainly to pressure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to achieve a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war and impose an arms embargo on Israel. The group received significant support in the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries.

" Uncommitted" and other voting options that don’t express support for any candidate were utilized by the campaign. The movement started in February, when the “Listen to Michigan” campaign attracted a large amount of support from Arab-Americans and progressives. The success in Michigan inspired similar campaigns in other states, with a national umbrella organization being founded in March. The campaign ultimately received over 700,000 votes and 30 delegates.

The movement has had several interactions with the Harris campaign, pushing for an arms embargo. At the Democratic National Convention, it advocated for a Palestinian-American to be allowed to speak.

Background

Israel-Hamas war

On October 7 2023, Hamas and allied militants invaded and attacked southern Israel, killing almost 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages. Following this, Israel retaliated by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, heavily bombing it, invading it. The response resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people and displacement of almost two million, as of August 2024. Israel and President Joe Biden's support of it drew criticism from pro-Palestinian protestors in the United States, and led to the disillusionment of some voters.

Uncommitted voting options

Other voting options similar to uncommitted include " None of These Candidates", "noncommitted delegate", "no preference", and others.

History

Michigan primary

The movement initially started as a campaign called "Listen to Michigan". Michigan has the highest amount of Arab-Americans in the United States, many of whom were sympathetic to Palestinians, and activists were seeking to protest Biden's handling of the war in the 2024 Michigan Democratic presidential primary. At the time, the campaign aimed to receive 10,000 votes and pressure Biden to call for a ceasefire and end arms to Israel.

Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist, had previously written a memo saying that if anti-war activists utilized protest votes, it could "politicize and electoralize discontent", gaining them greater attention and funding. Shahid and other organizers, including Layla Elabed, used "a shoestring budget and a few weeks of intense on-the-ground work" to spread awareness about the vote. Progressive groups such as Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution helped the campaign canvass and email voters. Elabed's sister, Palestinian-American Representative Rashida Tlaib, endorsed the campaign, along with former representative Andy Levin and local officials.

The campaign received over 100,000 votes and two delegates in the primary. It had it's most support with young Arab-American voters, as well as progressives.

National spread

The movement spread nationally. Activists in Super Tuesday states began individual campaigns, to some success. In Minnesota, ahead of its primary, activists had $20,000 to spend and were organizing to reach voters. The Uncommitted movement there intended to receive 5,000 votes, and actually received 45,000. The campaign received significant support from Arab-American and White voters in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.

In March, Listen to Michigan announced it would launch the "Uncommitted National Movement", an umbrella campaign for Uncommitted movements that advocated for a ceasefire. The movement began to focus on the Wisconsin primary and the Democratic National Convention.

Listen to Wisconsin, a campaign supported by the national movement, garnered nearly 50,000 votes for "uninstructed", more than the margin Biden won the state by in 2020. It however did not win any delegates. Other uncommitted campaigns during this time also achieved some success in non-competitive states.

Some campaigns in southern states likely succeeded due to " Democrats in Name Only", registered Democrats that vote for Republicans.

By the end of the primaries, Uncommitted had received over 700,000 votes and 30 delegates nationwide.

Impact and relations with Democrats

Some analysts argued that because of the movement, Harris began calling for a ceasefire in the war.

When Biden halted a weapons shipment to Israel over the Rafah offensive, the movement said it was a step forward, and said that the anti-war movement had "propelled" such actions. It also called for an embargo on Israel.

When Harris became the nominee after Biden withdrew from the race, the movement became "cautiously optimistic" that she would change policy on Israel due to her sympathetic rhetoric. Harris briefly met with Elabed and Alawieh at a rally in Michigan, in which they told her the movement would like to support her, but that they want an embargo on Israel first. They requested a meeting on an embargo, and Harris seemingly accepted. However, Phil Gordon, one of Harris' national security advisors, said that she did not support an embargo.

In early August, it was reported that the Harris campaign had met with Uncommitted leaders and allies in Michigan. Harris' campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez met individually with Uncommitted and Arab-American leaders in Metro Detroit, including Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News. Chávez Rodriguez agreed with Siblani that "the killing has to stop", but Siblani questioned how, saying there was no plan. Harris herself met with the mayor of Dearborn, the city with the largest Arab-American population in the United States, Abdullah Hammoud, to discuss the war and her policy.

On the first day of the DNC, the Uncommitted delegates were allowed to hold a Palestinian human rights panel, where they and others discussed the war and Harris' position on it.

On the third day, the DNC officially rejected the movement's request for a speaker of Palestinian descent. The delegates then staged a sit-in outside the convention, which progressive Congressional bloc " The Squad" and the United Auto Workers union supported. Squad members Ilhan Omar and Summer Lee visited the sit-in, while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez interacted with the delegates via FaceTime. Some activists stayed in the sit-in overnight and into day four. A group called "Muslim Women for Harris-Walz" disbanded after the announcement. The DNC did not meet the movement’s deadline of 6pm CST to allow a speaker. It claimed the movement requested the slot too late, and that the day had to be about Harris’ speech and nomination. The movement demanded that Harris or a senior campaign official have an in-person conversation with its leaders by September 15, and said that the campaign had offered them meetings with Congressional officials.

References

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