Trump, Biden win Michigan primaries but Democrats mount Gaza protest vote

4/4
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with autoworkers after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union recently endorsed his reelection bid, at the UAW Region 1 George Merrelli Technical Training Center in Warren, in the Detroit metro area, Michigan, U.S.,
2/4

By Nandita Bose and Tim Reid

DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) -Polls began closing in Michigan, home to a large Arab American constituency, where Democratic voters were urged to mark their primary ballots as “uncommitted” on Tuesday in protest at President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas.

Biden, a Democrat, and Republican former President Donald Trump were expected to easily win their separate party primaries. But the vote count for both was being closely watched for signs of wavering support.

Michigan is expected to play a decisive role in the head-to-head Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. It is a battleground state that could swing toward either party. Biden beat Trump in Michigan by just 2.8 percentage points in the 2020 election.

Voting sites begin closing at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT Wednesday) with the final locations closing an hour later.

Many in Michigan’s Arab American community who backed Biden in 2020 are now outraged, along with some progressive Democrats, over Biden’s support for Israel’s offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

Six voters Reuters interviewed at a polling place on Tuesday in Dearborn – a liberal city that is the epicenter of the pushback against Biden’s Israel strategy – said they were voting uncommitted. Another said he was voting for Trump.

But in Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, most Democrats interviewed said they would stick with Biden despite misgivings about his Israel policy, because of their dislike for Trump or Republican policies on abortion rights.

Late on Monday, Biden said Israel had agreed to halt military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan expected to begin on the evening of March 10, as Hamas studied a draft for a truce that includes a prisoner-hostage exchange.

It should have happened sooner, said Michael Bristol, 21, a student at Wayne State University who said he cast an uncommitted vote.

Engage Action and Listen to Michigan say they’re aiming for 10% of Michigan’s Democratic primary voters to mark their ballots that way, a symbolically significant 10,000 votes – about equal to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s loss in Michigan to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats, overall, support Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict by 61%, February polling by Harvard-Harris shows.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and other Democrats have warned that if Democratic voters abandon Biden, they could hand the swing state and the country back to Trump in November. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

A senior Biden campaign official said: “We’re taking this seriously. The president himself has said repeatedly that he hears these demonstrators and that he thinks that their cause is important.”

On Feb. 1, Biden won a strong pledge of support from union autoworkers, a Michigan voting bloc no less crucial to his reelection bid. The state is home to nearly 20% of all U.S. auto production, more than any state in the country.

“We are going to keep highlighting the contrast between Biden and Trump and once that becomes clear, we fully expect these voters, who have walked away from Biden, to come back,” said LaShawn English, UAW Director Region 1, which represents eight counties in Michigan.

DUELING REPUBLICAN CONTESTS

Michigan turnout for Trump rival Nikki Haley, who won nearly 40% of Republican votes in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday, could offer signs about the number of Republicans who harbor doubts about a second four-year Trump term.

Michigan’s Republican Party, beset by internal turmoil, will allocate some delegates to the party’s July convention based on Tuesday’s primary results.

Rival factions are holding dueling party meetings on Saturday that will award the bulk of the delegates. It was unclear, however, which results will be official, although Trump was expected to handily win both sets of Saturday’s votes.

Opinion polls show Trump holding an average statewide lead of nearly 57 percentage points over Haley, according to the poll tracking website FiveThirtyEight.

Still, the results in Michigan will be watched to see how much Trump struggles to attract large numbers of moderates and traditional Republicans, voters he will likely need to win back the White House in November.

Despite having lost to Trump in every primary race, Haley has performed well with moderate voters and has vowed to carry on despite having no clear path to the nomination.

“I’m not going to stop when 70% of Americans say they don’t want Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” Haley told CNN on Tuesday. “We’re gonna give them an option.”