Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania Democrats cast write-in ballots in Tuesday’s presidential primary amid the national uncommitted movement protesting President Joe Biden and his handling of the Israel and Hamas war and his initial, but now waning, support of Israel.
NBC News reported that at least 55,611 Democrat primary voters chose the write-in option, with 96 percent of the vote reported as of Wednesday morning. This accounts for 5.3 percent of the vote, while Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) took 6.5 percent, and Biden garnered 88.2 percent.
As there was no “uncommitted” option on the ballot in Pennsylvania, local organizers with the Uncommitted PA group encouraged voters to write in the phrase. A second group leading an anti-Biden effort in Pennsylvania protesting his handling of the war encouraged voters to write in “No Joe,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer noted.
It remains to be seen how many of the votes tabulate to “uncommitted” or “No Joe,” and it could take weeks before a final answer on that front, the Inquirer reported early Wednesday morning. However, in six key counties the number of write-ins tripled compared to 2020 to around 36,000 when 87 percent of the vote was reported, the outlet’s Julia Terruso and Jasen Lo reported:
Philadelphia County:
- 2024: 14,330
- 2020: 2,515
Alleghany County:
- 2024: 13,223
- 2020: 6,253
Montgomery County:
- 2024: 3,161
- 2020: 1,843
Delaware County:
- 2024: 2,104
- 2020: 844
Bucks County:
- 2024: 1,880
- 2020: 1,215
Chester County:
- 2024: 1,440
- 2020: 947
The Uncommitted PA coalition, which the Democrat Socialists of America headed up, aimed to have 40,000 “uncommitted” write-ins in the primary on Tuesday. It remains to be seen how many of the write-ins are “No Joe” and “uncommitted.”
But, hypothetically, if 55,611 was the total write-in share (it will increase, as four percent of the vote remains to be counted as of this writing), “No Joe” or “uncommitted” would need just 71 percent of the share to meet the 40,000 protest vote goal. For reference, that goal is roughly half the 81,660-vote margin Biden beat former President Donald Trump by in Pennsylvania in 2020, after Trump won the state over twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The number would be on par with protest votes seen in other states, including the 45,914 “uncommitted” votes in Minnesota on Super Tuesday, accounting for one in five primary voters. After Biden became the presumptive nominee, he was hit with another blow when 48,812 Wisconsin voters selected the “uninstructed” option.
Both of those followed the 101,430 protest votes in Michigan, where the uncommitted campaign started with “Listen to Michigan” and sprouted into a national movement that included Arab Americans, Muslims, young voters, and far-left progressives.
Days after the Wisconsin primary, Biden demanded an “immediate ceasefire” on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which makes the forthcoming results of this write-in campaign so consequential.
Some in the movement, especially Muslim and Arab American voters, have indicated they will never return to Biden, and the campaign’s persistence at rates similar to Minnesota and Wisconsin in the swing state of Pennsylvania, even after Biden’s demand to Netanyahu, would mean severe trouble for his campaign. The Uncommitted PA website even emphasizes, “Let’s show the Democratic Party and Biden that they’re actively losing their base that they need to win the 2024 election by not calling for a ceasefire.”
Before the Michigan primary, New York Times columnist Charles Blow caught up with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan, where a pair of leaders with the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indicated they would never return to Biden.
CAIR Michigan’s Executive Director Dawud Walid “said that for most Muslims, anything short of Biden ‘resurrecting 29,000 dead Palestinians like Jesus’ would mean that they will never vote for him again,” Blow wrote.
Palestinian American Nihad Awad, who cofounded the organization, made clear he did not like former President Donald Trump but said, “I’m going to live under Trump because I survived under Trump because he’s my enemy,” adding, “I cannot live under someone who pretends to be my friend.”
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