The face of the moon was in shadow
(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/29/2024) Dearborn voter’s decision to vote 57 percent “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s presidential primary gave national and state political types something to glom onto in an otherwise ho-hum Dem primary. Dearborn has the country’s highest Arab-American population and they gave Biden’s pro-Israel stances a thumbs-down.
But the city’s objection to Democratic candidates they view as pro-Israel isn’t new.
Target Insyght Executive Director Ed Sarpolus pointed out Thursday that in the 2016 presidential primary, 59 percent of Dearborn voters supported protest candidate Bernie Sanders as opposed to Hillary Clinton, who was perceived as being pro-Israel.
Meanwhile, 40.37 percent of Dearborn voters in 2024 voted for President Joe Biden, whose positions on the Israel-Gaza conflict they disagreed with. In 2016, Clinton received 39.25 percent of the vote in Dearborn, nearly identical.
Sarpolus also pointed out that voting “uncommitted” in Democratic presidential primaries isn’t new.
Obviously in 2008, the 40 percent “uncommitted” served as a protest vote for Barack OBAMA, who opted not to participate in the primary due to its early date. But in 2012, 10.6 percent of the Democrats who showed up to vote in the primary voted “uncommitted” at a time when Obama was unchallenged, but also seen as being pro-Israel.
The 2024 uncommitted vote was only 2.4 percentage points higher, Sarpolus pointed out.
Sarpolus also noted that while Dearborn’s 12th Congressional District and the Ann Arbor-based liberal vote in the 6th Congressional District lead the way with 17 percent uncommitted voters, Democrats in every other Michigan congressional district voted “uncommitted” by 10 percent or more.
In short, Arab Americans and liberal districts may have led the “uncommitted” vote, but young, progressive voters across the state have historically had problems supporting pro-Israel, establishment candidates in Democratic primaries.
“Trying to imply that the 13 percent of Democratic primary voters was solely the result of the campaign to punish Joe Biden’s support of Israel in the battle against Hamas, which was causing destruction and many deaths in Gaza, is disingenuous because the data doesn’t match up with history,” Sarpolus said.
