Biden wins Michigan's Democratic primary but uncommitted votes in double digits

President Joe Biden easily won Michigan's Democratic presidential primary contest Tuesday, even as more than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted protest votes.

Unofficial election returns showed Biden won 81.1% of the vote, followed by 13.3% uncommitted, 2.7% for Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and 3% for self-help guru Marianne Williamson, with 98% of votes counted.

In Dearborn, where Arab Americans make up about half the city's population of roughly 107,000 residents, the "uncommitted" protest trounced Biden's tally 56% to 40% with all but one precinct reporting and a total vote of just under 11,200.

"I want to thank every Michigander who made their voice heard today," Biden said in a statement. "Exercising the right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great."

Former President Donald Trump handily defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in Michigan's Republican primary.

The Democratic primary results from the battleground state Tuesday night followed intense hand-wringing among some of the Democratic president's supporters about the progressive backlash to his backing of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his response to Palestinian suffering in Gaza.

The votes are in:Check here for the latest election results

More:Michigan puts Biden, Trump on path to rematch in November

Activists led by Arab American and Muslim community organizers spent the last three weeks urging Democrats in the state to select "uncommitted" on the ballot to register their anger at Biden's disregard for calls within the party for a cease-fire and restrictions on military aid for Israel.

"Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations," organizer Layla Elabed said in a statement.

At a Dearborn polling site Tuesday, more than a dozen people told a Detroit News reporter they were basing their votes solely on Biden's approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

"I hope the uncommitted turnout is huge — beyond expectations — and it sends a direct message to the president," said Ali K. Bazzi, 41, of Dearborn, who described himself as an independent voter.

"We no longer want our tax dollars to fund this genocide. It is time to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire and for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza immediately. Enough children have died. Enough mothers and fathers. Enough innocent people.”

Wayne County, where many Arab American and Muslim voters live, usually reports its results later in the evening.

In East Lansing, Gina Shireman, 43, of East Lansing, cast her vote for Biden at the Hannah Community Center.

“He’s not my favorite, but I think the alternative options are terrifying," Shireman said.

“What is going to be a better outcome for the Palestinian people, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?” she added. “To me, it seems very obvious that there’s a better option there, so voting anything other than for Joe Biden feels like a vote to hurt people.”

Ben Jones, 25, of East Lansing, was motivated by the "uncommitted" movement to hit the polls Tuesday, but he cast his ballot for Biden. He said he sees every uncommitted Democratic primary vote as a vote for Trump.

“I see a lot of nuance (in the uncommitted movement) because Israel is, as far as I can tell, committing genocide,” Jones said.

“My understanding is people are voting uncommitted because of that. And I think it is important to send signals that we disagree with that, but I think it is worse to vote for something that could lead to our end of democracy.”

Organizers of the uncommitted effort planned to fan out volunteers at 20 polling locations in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Hamtramck and Detroit on Tuesday to speak with voters and hand out literature in English and Arabic on the effort, Elabed said.

The campaign said it made over 500,000 calls and sent 650,000 texts to spread the word, including 62,000 calls placed Tuesday alone, in addition to a YouTube ad, mailers distributed in Metro Detroit and an aggressive social media campaign. Prominent Democrats like U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hamoud and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Bloomfield Township endorsed the movement.

Biden's campaign on the ground in Michigan also worked to turn out supporters at the polls, stressing a message that emphasizes protections for abortion rights and priorities like student debt relief.

"The energy and enthusiasm we saw around this early primary in Michigan is why we fought so hard for it," Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said.

"Now we will bring this energy forward to the general election where the choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump couldn’t be more clear. Do we want a President who spreads hate and division or a president who fights for all of us?"

Biden last visited the state Feb. 1 in the wake of his endorsement by the United Auto Workers union to court Black voters at a sports bar in Harper Woods and Macomb County union voters.

Notably, the president, on the eve of Election Day in Michigan, told reporters that negotiators were close to an agreement to cease military operations in Gaza by Monday in exchange for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas.

"My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet," Biden said. "My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”

More:'We can't stay silent': In Dearborn, 'betrayal' sparks backlash against Biden in primary

Surrogates like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and California U.S. Reps. Sara Jacobs and Ro Khanna stumped for Biden on the trail in Michigan. Vice President Kamala Harris and first gentleman Doug Emhoff both visited the state separately last week.

Whitmer on MSNBC on Tuesday acknowledged that a "sizable" number of voters from the Arab American and Muslim communities would voice their opinion on Gaza by voting uncommitted, though Whitmer herself has discouraged voters from doing so because it might help former President Donald Trump.

"This is a state that it's always close elections. There is a sense of urgency. And as I've engaged with Michiganders of various backgrounds, I know that this is a high concern. It is re-traumatizing for so many people who have come to Michigan or their ancestors came to Michigan to flee violence like they see playing out on TikTok halfway around the world every day," Whitmer said.

"So I think it's going to be important that the administration continue to engage with leaders and individuals in the Palestinian community, the Muslim community, the Arab American community, as well as the Jewish community. ... It is raw, and it is genuine pain that people are in."

If the "uncommitted" vote garners 15% of the vote or higher either statewide or in a congressional district, a share of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August would be uncommitted or not assigned to a particular candidate. For example, 15% uncommitted in the 12th Congressional District that includes Dearborn would translate to one uncommitted delegate.

"Our delegation plans to hold the Democratic nominee accountable to our community’s anti-war agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago," said Elabed, a younger sister of Tlaib. "See you there."

But Michigan State University political scientist Matt Grossmann cautioned this week against using the uncommitted vote in the Democratic primary to predict what will happen in Michigan's general election eight months from now.

"I don’t know if it’s a very good signal of anything that could happen in November," Grossmann said. "If it’s big, does that mean that more people will vote against him in November? Not necessarily."

Listen to Michigan's leaders said their aim with the uncommitted vote is to demonstrate to Biden that Michigan Democrats who oppose the his policy in Gaza control what could be his margin of victory for a second term, warning that thousands of them might stay home in November if Biden doesn't overhaul his approach.

"We already feel like the mere fact that organizing against war and for stopping the killing is a success in and of itself because we feel we’re on the right side of history and want President Biden to join us," Listen to Michigan spokesman Abbas Alawieh said.

Alawieh pointed to former President Donald Trump winning Michigan by about 10,700 votes in 2016, and pegged expectations for Tuesday's uncommitted tally based on that margin — hoping to notch at least 10,000 to 11,000 uncommitted votes in the primary results.

The goal seemed relatively low, considering that uncommitted received about double that tally — around 19,000 votes ― in the last two Democratic presidential primaries when there was no coordinated effort to vote that way.

For example, the last time an incumbent Democratic president, Barack Obama, was on the primary ballot in Michigan, about 20,800 voted uncommitted in the primary, or 10.7% of the vote in 2012.

The last organized uncommitted effort on the Democratic side occurred in 2008. That came after Michigan broke party rules by moving up its primary, prompting Obama, Sen. John Edwards and others to pull their names from the ballot — but not Hillary Clinton. Obama and Edwards supporters urged voters to cast "uncommitted" ballots and ultimately garnered 40% of the vote.

While much of Tuesday's focus was on Wayne County, in the Oakland County suburbs that state Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, represents, it feels like support for Biden has been growing, including in African American communities like Pontiac and Southfield that have benefited from Biden policies and initiatives, he said.

Moss said the narrative that an uncommitted vote is a response to Biden’s "unwillingness" to engage in cease-fire talks is "not grounded in the reality" that Biden's administration is actively working on achieving such an agreement.

"There’s a missing narrative here of the people who want to see a two-state solution, an eradication of Hamas, a release of all hostages and understand that that is what the Biden policies are trying to achieve, too," said Moss, who is Jewish and represents a large concentration of Jewish voters.

"It’s why I’m must more focused on the general election rather than the results of this primary will be."

The pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel argued that by drawing attention to the option of voting uncommitted, it had become "a receptacle for everyone who has a beef with President Biden," including Armenian Americans who are upset about Biden's policy toward Azerbaijan.

"Democrats — who worry about Biden’s age, or think that he hasn’t done enough to forgive college loans, or enough to reduce climate change, or who don’t like our immigration or criminal justice polices (and others) — have their own reasons to vote uncommitted," the group's spokeswoman, Rachel Rosen, said in a statement.

Rima Mohammad, a trustee on the Ann Arbor school board who is Palestinian American, was among 40 elected officials who signed the “Uncommitted Campaign” letter vowing to vote uncommitted in Tuesday’s primary.

“I feel like this is a protest vote. For me this is very crucial is to send a message to President Biden that we are frustrated," Mohammad said Tuesday at an event for the group in Dearborn. "We need a change in position, we need a change in course. My own people are dying. Family members are dying.”

State Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn, who also voted uncommitted, said the nominee of the Democratic Party should be someone who without hesitation will support an immediate cease-fire.

“Today wasn’t a choice between Trump or Biden. It was a choice of what type of nominee you want to see your party put forward,” Farhat said.

“You will be hard pressed to find many other communities that also understand what a destructive force Trump would be in the White House. I want to be very clear that I and my colleagues will be doing everything we can to make sure Trump is not brought back to the White House.”

If uncommitted had notched only their stated goal of 10,000 votes in Tuesday's tally, that would have likely been a disappointment to organizers, said Dave Dulio, a political scientist at Oakland University. Indeed, the uncommitted tally exceeded 17,000 within the first hour of polls closing Tuesday night.

He predicted the uncommitted campaign would see a higher percentage of the vote in part because the primary is a "snoozer" whose winner is known: "What motivation do more establishment Democrats or those who support his Israel policy have to show up?" Dulio said.

"The thing to watch for is what does the movement do next? If they get 10% or 15% of the vote, that would be a pretty big win," Dulio said.

"Then what do Congresswoman Tlaib and the Dearborn mayor do next? Do they continue to press the White House or talk about ways to have voters not support the president? Their next move I think is going to be the thing to watch."

Staff writers Beth LeBlanc, Jennifer Chambers and Sarah Rahal contributed.

mburke@detroitnews.com