More than 40K ‘uninstructed’ ballots cast in Wisconsin Dem primary in protest of Biden’s Gaza response

More than 40,000 “uneducated” ballots were cast Tuesday in Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary to protest President Biden’s response to the conflict in Gaza.

The number of protest votes doubled the threshold that movement organizers hoped to reach, although Biden, 81, still cruised to victory in the Badger State.

The president received 87.9% of the vote, while nearly 9% voted “uneducated” and more than 3% chose to vote for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who dropped out of the race last month. last.

“Wisconsin: 43,090 unordered votes with 85% declared. More than 2x our goal! » an X account associated with the so-called “Listen to Wisconsin” campaign was published.

The campaign, backed by 21 local, state and national advocacy groups, and dozens of religious leaders and state elected officials, urged Wisconsinites to vote “uneducated” to protest “continued support of Biden to all-out violence in Gaza.”

Wisconsin – a key battleground state – narrowly went for Biden in 2020.

The group’s 20,000 vote goal was based on Biden’s margin of victory over former President Donald Trump in the Badger State during the last presidential election.

In March, Biden faced a similar protest vote in the state of Michigan, where 100,000 uncommitted ballots were cast in the state’s Democratic primary to protest the president’s refusal to call for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas.

The total came to 13 percent of the vote, and the uncommitted Michigan campaign received two delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August.

In Minnesota, nearly 19% of Democratic primary voters cast uncommitted ballots last month, for a total of more than 45,900. That campaign attracted 11 Biden delegates.

Both Michigan and Minnesota have significant Muslim and Arab American populations.

Support for Biden from the voting bloc has declined following his support for Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Only 17.4% of Arab American voters said they would vote for Biden in 2024, according to a John Zogby Strategies poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute last October.

In 2020, the same poll measured Arab Americans’ support for Biden at 59%.