Biden faces protests from Uncommitted movement in Minnesota over his support for Israel

(Patria) - The "Uncommitted" movement, which is pressuring US President Joe Biden to change his policy towards Israel, is heading to Minnesota, where activists hope that a coalition of progressive Democrats and American Muslims will encourage strong protest votes on Super Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Minnesota is not an important state in terms of voting, given the historical strength of Democrats there, so any "uncommitted" vote will not have the same impact as the unexpectedly large protest in Michigan last week, which won two delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August.

Nevertheless, the vote is being closely watched as a measure of Biden's strength within his party.

"This will be another protest vote against Biden aimed at stopping the war," said Jaylani Hussein, co-chair of the "Abandon Biden" movement in Minnesota, one of several groups calling for not voting for Biden using phone calls, SMS campaigns, events in mosques and other community centers. Hussein, who estimates that the Midwestern state has about 250,000 Muslims, said Minnesota's goal is to get at least 10,000 "uncommitted" votes, but the numbers could be higher.

"Uncommitted" are calling on Biden to support a permanent ceasefire and halt aid to Israel. Biden's early and strong support for Israel and his refusal to condition military aid on not killing innocent people or destroying infrastructure has angered key segments of his coalition, which could affect his re-election chances against likely Republican rival Donald Trump.

Biden (81) faces low approval ratings and concerns about his age, as does Trump (77). If Trump is re-elected, he is expected to be a strong supporter of Israel and its right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Results in Michigan, where Biden won 81 percent of the vote, show that his "base supporters are still behind him," said a Biden campaign official, who expects to see the same result from Minnesota. "None of this means we will ignore the Arab-American and Muslim-American population," he said.

"We won't. We take no one for granted," he added.

The sharpest US comment on the war so far came from Vice President Kamala Harris, who on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept a deal to release hostages in exchange for a six-week pause in hostilities.

Even with protest votes, Biden is expected to win the primaries in Minnesota and more than a dozen other states on March 5, also known as Super Tuesday, and secure the Democratic nomination in the coming weeks.

Minnesota has not supported a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972, although Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of winning in 2016. Biden won the state by over 233,000 votes in 2020.