Polls closed in Michigan on Tuesday night where President Joe Biden faces a number of “uncommitted” Democratic voters over his support for Israel’s war against Hamas.
METERMost Michigan polling places closed at 8 p.m., but some in the state’s Upper Peninsula are open until 9 p.m., meaning no election calls will take place until then.
Early results showed Biden won the state, which he also won in the 2020 general election, but 16 percent of Democrats in the state voted for the “uncommitted” instead of the president, and only 9 percent reported .
Biden’s rival, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, is also on the ballot.
On the Republican ticket, former President Donald Trump faces his latest rival, the former ambassador. Nikki Haley.
Early results showed Trump was far ahead.
There was little doubt that President Biden would win the Democratic primary in Michigan. Activists have been pushing for a vote “not committed” to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) voted for the “uncommitted” instead of President Joe Biden, while accusing the United States of aiding “genocide” against the Palestinians. She posted a video after voting.
Biden faced scrutiny in Michigan over his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and many Arab American voters in Dearborn and other parts of Detroit have been expressing anger over the war.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a member of the squad, who is Palestinian-American, has been criticizing Biden and pushing for the “uncommitted” effort.
“Today I felt proud to go in and get a Democratic ballot and vote without compromising,” she said in video.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud criticized Biden for commenting Monday on the latest ceasefire talks while the president was eating an ice cream cone.
“I’m not looking for words or words. “I’m looking for action,” she told DailyMail.com outside a polling place.
Khalid Turaani, co-founder of the ‘Leave Biden’ movement, predicted that thousands of people would vote ‘uncommitted’.
“I think it’s strange to me that you’re eating ice cream in a saloon; that’s the time you’re talking about a ceasefire,” said Dearborn, Michigan, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud.
President Joe Biden discussed talks for a temporary ceasefire while grabbing ice cream with ‘Late Night’ host Seth Meyers in New York on Monday.
Biden faced demands for a permanent ceasefire and a push to vote for the ‘uncommitted’
Dearborn has a high percentage of Arab American and Muslim voters.
“I think 10,000 is reasonable and I think we’ll get there,” he told DailyMail.com as he handed out sample ballots that said “uncommitted.”
Of the first six people he spoke to, in English and Arabic, outside a polling station, “only one person did not say that he was not going to vote without committing himself.” She didn’t talk much.
Ten thousand is roughly the number by which Biden defeated Trump in 2020, in a demonstration of the influence Arab American voters could have in the November election.
Trump has surpassed Haley in the first four primary states where both appeared on the ballot. Iowa, New HampshireSouth Carolina and now Michigan.
The former president also won the Nevada caucuses, and a symbolic vote for Trump (voters chose “none of these candidates”) edged out Haley in the Nevada presidential primary.
Former President Donald Trump held a campaign event in Michigan on February 17. After winning the South Carolina primary on Saturday, he stayed off the campaign trail but has planned visits to Super Tuesday states Texas, North Carolina and Virginia in the coming days.
The former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley made a campaign stop Monday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before heading to Minnesota and Colorado, which are Super Tuesday states. In Grand Rapids, she complained that Trump was trying to make the RNC his personal ‘playground.’
Haley, however, has vowed to press ahead, telling supporters in Charleston on Saturday night that she would remain in the race until Super Tuesday, March 5, when 16 states and American Samoa hold primaries.
“There are a large number of voters in our Republican primary who say they want an alternative,” he said Saturday night.
“I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run for president; I’m a woman of my word,” she said to applause.
During an interview with CNN Tuesday night as Michigan votes were being counted, Haley reiterated that commitment.
“Absolutely, we have a country to save, absolutely,” Haley told the network’s Dana Bash.