President Joe Biden walked the Michigan Democratic presidential primary yesterday with 81% of the vote, with uncommitted voters on 13% and Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips each on 3%. The only question was the size of that uncommitted protest vote: though amounting to the 100,000 voters activists hoped for, it was short of the 15% that would affect delegate allocation and nothing unusual by historical standards.
More so than any of the other primaries to date, the Michigan contest was a referendum of sorts on Biden's support for Israel in its war with Hamas. The mounting death toll in Gaza and Biden's refusal to demand a permanent cease-fire have damped his support inside his party.
Carol Reynoso, a Democrat from Dearborn who voted for Biden in 2020 and cast a vote Tuesday for "uncommitted," said in an interview: "I think it's a great opportunity to get the message to the administration that people in Michigan are concerned about what's going on and that there's a large group of people that want a cease-fire."
Donald Trump beat Nikki Haley 68-28% on the GOP side: she's not advancing, but her persistence makes clear that about a third of Republican voters want an alternative to the former president.
Previously: Michigan Supreme Court declines to hear Trump eligibility case
