Politico Admits ‘Uncommitted’ Movement Could Be Kamala Harris’s Undoing in Michigan
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The “Uncommitted” movement made up of young voters, progressives, Arab Americans, and Muslims who are highly dissatisfied with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could be Vice President Kamala Harris’s undoing in Michigan, Politico admitted Monday.
Politico Playbook deputy editor Zack Stanton authored an article asserting that college students in the state are breaking for Harris, but in the same breath noted the uncommitted movement could snuff out Harris’s White House hopes.
After all, more than 101,000 Michiganders turned out in the Democrat primary to vote “uncommitted” against Biden and Harris in protest of their handling of the war, with demands for a ceasefire and threat of staying home in November unless one is reached. Yet, there is no ceasefire in sight, and Harris has repeatedly doubled down on her and Biden’s policies since becoming the nominee with the election just two weeks out.
And the more than 101,000 uncommitted voters account for roughly two-thirds of the 154,188-vote margin Biden won Michigan by in 2020. If these voters stay home, or even half of them do, it spells significant trouble for Harris in a state where Trump already has the lead in the Real Clear Polling (RCP) average.
Stanton caught up with a number of college students at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing to gauge their sentiments on Harris and Trump and how policy regarding the Israel-Hamas war factors into their votes.
“Multiple students I spoke with aren’t ready to commit to Harris, and in such a marginal swing state, their ballots could make a difference. Some are even dismissive of the Trump threat altogether,” Stanton noted.
One student, 21-year-old Jesse Estrada White, who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at MSU, remains undecided and could leave the top of the ballot blank or fill in the Harris-Walz bubble. While he says will vote on down-ballot races, a vote for Harris is dependent on a policy change.
“I’ll never not vote,” the 21-year-old senior vows. “I’ll always vote down-ticket. And I don’t believe voting third party is an effective strategy here in this state. It’s a swing state; we have a lot to win and lose. … For me, my vote is — like, Harris has to do something to win it. I need to see [a] policy that says something in Israel is going to change.
Saba Saed, 22, is another MSU student who Stanton caught up with. Saed, an immigrant from Palestine who came to America more than a decade ago, is keeping who she plans to vote for under wraps, but noted a Trump presidency would not worry her, and if he wins, Democrats only have themselves to blame.
Stanton wrote:
She’s familiar with the questions that come up when someone suggests that not supporting Harris could tip the White House to Trump: “‘As an Arab-American, are you going to [be OK] with a Muslim ban? Is that going to be fine with you?’” she parrots. “You know what? If it comes [with] saving people from genocide.”
Stanton also reported he spoke to students who advocate for Palestinians but are committed to voting for Harris.
Breitbart News has chronicled the developments in the “Uncommitted movement” for months, especially the threat it posed to President Joe Biden’s campaign and now Harris’s since she became the nominee.
While some Democrat college students are still deciding if they can bring themselves to vote for Harris, they account for just one sub-demographic of the larger movement.
In the Muslim and Arab American-dense community of Dearborn, Michigan, in critical Wayne County, the uncommitted option actually beat Biden by 17 percentage points. A majority of 57 percent of Dearborn Democrats protested Biden, who drew just 40 percent of the vote.
Moreover, Ameer Ghalib, the Democrat Muslim mayor of nearby Hamtramck, which has a robust Arab American and Muslim population and is also situated in Wayne County, endorsed former President Donald Trump in September. That endorsement came days after a meeting between Ghalib and Trump.
“I talked to President Trump about, you know, some statistics here in Wayne County and how it used to be a stronghold for the Democrats, and we always used to vote Democrat. This is not the case anymore here,” he told Breitbart News Saturday in an exclusive interview between the meeting and his official endorsement.
Ghalib recounted that later in the interview Trump said that “he is going to end the chaos in the Middle East,” adding Trump “doesn’t want wars.”
Making all of this even more daunting for Harris is her Michigan polling numbers in the Real Clear Polling average. As of Monday afternoon, Trump’s lead over Harris was 48.8 percent to 47.6 percent in the aggregator’s average.
On October 21, 2020, Biden led Trump by 7.8 points in RCP’s Michigan average, and twice-failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had a 12-point advantage over Trump in the state on October 21, 2016. Trump went on to carry the state in 2016.
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