OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden is facing a disaster in a crucial swing state that could cost him the presidential election against former President Donald Trump.
The president is facing a protest vote from Muslims in Michigan, but Newsweek deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon said the issue for President Biden is greater than the Muslim protest vote due to the United States handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.
“Should Democrats be worried about the 100,000 “uncommitted” votes in the Michigan primary?” HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher said on Friday.
“I read about this. Will protest votes over Biden’s policy in Gaza cost him the election in November? Michigan just had a primary, and Michigan has a large Muslim population and they are not thrilled Joie Biden is supporting Israel in its war. So 100,000 people, Democratic voters, voted “uncommitted.” They seem to be saying we are threatening to support Trump, a known lover of Muslims. But this is a wedge issue in the Democratic Party. Young people, the kids, and Muslim voters like this don’t want him supporting Israel. Many other people do. What are your thoughts?” he said.
But the Newsweek editor said it is not only the Muslim vote that the president needs to be concerned about.
“The media really wants to put this narrative out there that Biden is going to lose Michigan over Gaza, when the truth is he’s going to lose Michigan over 600,000 auto workers because his EV market was extremely punishing to auto workers,” she said.
“And there’s been this big realignment where working-class Americans are very much on the Trump train. People who used to be Democrats and used to vote for Democrats. Rather than admit that, this outrage that the Democrats lost the working class vote, and try to figure out how we can appeal to them, they are looking for excuses and other things to blame — like this war in Gaza, or they’re deplorable or racists,” the editor said.
“Because they don’t want to admit that Trump has picked up a lot of the policies that used to be Democrat policies in the 1990s, like controlling the border, for example. The idea is that an open border and mass migration is extremely punishing to the working class and drives down their wages. It is class warfare against the working class.
“It is an upward transfer of wealth from the working class who end up competing with immigrants, to the elites who end up employing the. And now they can employ cheap immigrants instead of having to pay Americans a living wage,” she said.
President Biden took the Democrat Michigan primary with 623,415 votes, which was 81.1 percent, but “Uncommitted” scored 101,436 votes, which was 13.2 percent and gained two delegates.
And it could get more disastrous for the president on Super Tuesday, The New York Post reported.
“Activists who launched the successful Michigan campaign have their sights on a slew of Super Tuesday primaries next week, including Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Maine and Alabama — all of which have ‘uncommitted’ or write-in slots on their Dem primary ballots,” the report said.
“Biden is not going to duplicate his 2020 coalition,” Democrat strategist James Carville said to The Post. He said that another issue for the president is that black voters are also among the party’s disaffected. “It’s across the spectrum,” he said.
And the issues for the president extend to young voters, the report said.
“In Tuesday’s Michigan primary, 17.2% of voters in Washtenaw County, home of the University of Michigan, marked ‘uncommitted’ to show their disdain for the president, an even higher percentage than the 16.8% racked up in the Muslim stronghold of Wayne County,” it said.
