Thousands of New Jersey Democrats voiced their frustration Tuesday with President Joe Biden by voting “uncommitted” on their presidential primary ballot.
As of Wednesday afternoon, with about 90% of the vote counted, more than 41,000 voters registered a protest vote against Biden. The Uncommitted New Jersey group organizing the campaign to show frustration with Biden’s support for Israel had set a goal of 50,000 votes.
In most New Jersey counties, Democratic primary voters had the option of selecting “uncommitted” for the presidential race, right above a slogan that read “Justice for Palestine. Permanent Ceasefire Now.” Activists used a signature campaign to get the option on the ballot. In parts of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, where the signature effort failed, organizers asked voters to simply write in “uncommitted.”
“What Muslim Americans have been demanding from Biden is so minimal,” Hassan Abdel Salam, executive director of the National Abandon Biden Campaign, said in a news release Tuesday night. “We ask for the end of the killing, of the bombardments, of the famine. Of this extreme policy of death. We are not asking for an extra inch of land; we’re just asking to stop the killing.”
Democrats frustrated with Joe Biden's pro-Israel stance amid Gaza war
The appearance of the “uncommitted” choice on ballots Tuesday in New Jersey differed from Pennsylvania’s April primary, in which activist groups urged Democrats who were unhappy with Biden to write in “uncommitted” or “no Joe” as a form of protest. Several other states, including Michigan, Colorado, and Minnesota, have had “uncommitted” options on the ballot this year.
“I like Biden, but I think we need to send a message that he needs to do more for a ceasefire for Gaza,” Sophie Mulvihill, 21, said outside of her polling place at Haddonfield’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on Tuesday. “Obviously, I’ll vote for him in November, I just wanted to send that message.”
New Jersey is among the last states to hold a presidential primary. Though Biden has had a lock on the Democratic nomination since early in the cycle, he’s contended with progressive activists who have encouraged voters to send a pro-Palestinian message by voting “uncommitted.” They’ve urged Biden to stop weapons transfers and call for an immediate cease-fire.
After pausing some weapons transfers amid concerns of civilian casualties in the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month, the Biden administration told reporters last week that it would not alter policy after an Israeli air strike in the city.
According to the Associated Press, an administration official said the attack did not appear to be a full-scale ground offensive and therefore it did not cross the administration’s line for withholding future arms transfers.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military operation in response to an Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 Israeli hostages.
New Jersey is a reliably Democratic state that Biden is counting on winning in November. While it hasn’t been a swing state for some time, former President Donald Trump campaigned in Wildwood in May, where he proclaimed he would win the state. He’d be the first Republican presidential candidate to do so since 1988.
At the polls on Tuesday, Kevin Michael, a 26-year-old who recently moved to Cherry Hill, said voting “uncommitted” made him feel better about reluctantly backing Biden in November.
”I mean, the fact that, you know, we have starvation in this country, people can’t afford rent, people can’t afford food … people can go into debt because of simple health care issues. I think that should be our focus, not helping other people brutalize innocents,” he said referencing Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mohammad Mian, a 69-year-old Democrat from Cherry Hill, voted for Biden in 2020 but voted “uncommitted” on Tuesday and said he is considering voting for Trump in November.
Mian, who is Muslim and from Pakistan, said he didn’t like the administration’s support of Israel in its war in Gaza, which he described as, “the biggest tragedy we’ve seen unfold in front of us.”
Mount Laurel resident Nick Lehmann said he didn’t know any “uncommitted” voters and doesn’t think the general election is a time for protest votes.
“I’m one of those people who’s not a huge Biden fan,” Lehmann said. “But the worst thing that can happen to this planet is another Donald Trump presidency.”
The “uncommitted” campaign has had varied success across the country.
In nine of the 18 states that had an “uncommitted” ballot option, more than 10% of Democratic voters picked that option, according to data from the Associated Press. Often, at least 10% of the vote went to some combination of uncommitted, write-in votes, or minor challengers to Biden.
In Pennsylvania, voters could use the write-in option to vote “uncommitted.”
Because the state election code only requires counties to tally the number of write-in votes that were cast for people it’s unclear exactly how many voters wrote in “uncommitted.”
More than 60,000 voters in the Democratic primary used the write-in option. In Philadelphia, 13,277 write-in votes were for uncommitted specifically and 13,600 were Israel-related protest votes, generally.