President Joe Biden could face a protest vote in the upcoming Wisconsin primaries as a result of the White House response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The U.S. has long been a staunch ally of Israel and Biden supported the country with aid and weaponry following the Hamas launched surprise attack in October that left about 1,200 people dead and another 240 seized as hostages according to reports.
The U.S. has vetoed three separate United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire, despite fierce global criticism of Israel's response to the attack which has included extensive airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza, cutting off the Palestinian territory's supply of water, fuel, and electricity, which it claims has been taken over by Hamas.
International organizations have sounded the alarm of the worsening humanitarian situation in the region.
Biden has toughened his approach and rhetoric to Israel in recent months, calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian aid into the battered Gaza, and warning that Israel faces "strategic defeat" if it allows the humanitarian crisis to continue.
Despite the recent change in tone from the White House, 60 grassroot groups and organizers are campaigning in Wisconsin to urge voters to mark themselves as "uninstructed" in the ballot, which is the state's version of "uncommitted," to protest the Biden stance on the war. Given Biden has already secured enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination ahead of the election, the protest will be largely symbolic.
The groups, including the Listen to Wisconsin campaign, are seeking 20,682 voters to mark their ballots as uninstructed in order to match the same number by which the President beat Donald Trump in the state in the 2020 presidential election.
"We're watching the precincts in Madison and Milwaukee the closest and there is a flurry of activity in those areas," Halah Ahmad, a spokeswoman for the "uninstructed" campaign in Wisconsin, told Yahoo News.
Newsweek contacted a representative for Biden's campaign by email to comment on this story.
Wisconsin is an open primary state where voters do not need to register with a party to vote. It is a key part of the "blue wall" of states that Biden could need to secure a second presidential term. In 2016, Trump flipped it to red, the first time it voted Republican in a presidential election in more than 30 years, but in 2020, Biden took it back.
The president has faced "uncommitted" protests in other states, although he has won all but one Democratic primary.
In February, more than 100,000 Michigan primary voters cast ballots for "uncommitted" to protest the war. In March, he earned the accolade of becoming the first incumbent president to lose a primary in 44 years. He lost in American Samoa, a small U.S. territory in the South Pacific, to Jason Palmer.
The more decisive ballot will be in November, when voters choose between Biden and Trump once more. The outcome of that vote looks to be tight, and Wisconsin will likely again play a significant role.
An Emerson College poll, conducted among 1,350 voters from March 5-6, found Biden and Trump virtually tied. But when undecided voters were asked who they were leaning toward, Biden held a slight lead of 51 percent to Trump's 49 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
A Florida Atlantic University poll, conducted among 1,053 voters from March 15-17, found Biden with 47 percent support compared to Trump's 45 percent. That survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more
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