"Uncommitted" movement refuses to endorse Harris over opposition to policy on war in Gaza

 

A volunteer holds a "Vote Uncommitted" sign outside of a polling station at Oakman School in Dearborn, Michigan, on February 27. 

Nic Antaya/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The “Uncommitted” movement, which sprung up during the Democratic primaries in opposition to the Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza, said Thursday it will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign after it again spurned activists pushing for a halt to US military aid to Israel and an immediate ceasefire.

“Uncommitted” leaders, however, warned against a vote for former President Donald Trump, whose agenda, they said in a statement, “includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing.” The group also said it was “not recommending a third-party vote” because of the potential for “inadvertently” helping Trump in key swing states.

Key voting group: The campaign for Michigan, a part of Democrats’ “blue wall” of must-win states in November, is expected to be among the closest contests in the country. Pro-Palestinian activists have repeatedly spoken about the anger over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which began in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks and has now claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians. “Uncommitted” leaders said their decision means allied organizers will not pro-actively push for Harris ahead of the election.

“Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” the group said, while also criticizing her campaign for “courting Dick Cheney,” the Republican former vice president and Iraq War architect, “while sidelining disillusioned anti-war voices.” Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman and fierce Trump critic, endorsed Harris for president earlier this month.

Thursday’s announcement comes ahead of a Harris campaign event with Oprah Winfrey in the Detroit suburbs later in the evening. Michigan is home to one of the country’s largest Arab American populations, which helped fuel the more than 100,000 “uncommitted” ballots cast – as a message to Biden — in the state’s February Democratic primary.

“Uncommitted” movement leaders, including Abbas Alawieh – a former Hill staffer for Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush – and Tlaib’s sister, Layla Elabed, pushed for a speaking slot at August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago but were turned down by party leaders. 

They held a sit-in outside the United Center to protest the decision, eventually shifting their demand to a visit from Harris to bereaved Palestinian American families in Michigan. “Uncommitted” leaders said the campaign failed “to address the request.”