Dearborn's Democratic Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who backed the uncommitted campaign, speaks during an election night gathering on Tuesday in Dearborn.Carlos Osorio/AP
In 2012, voters in Michigan’s Democratic primary had two choices: Barack Obama and uncommitted. In Dearborn, the first city in the United States with an Arab-American majority, 87 percent voted for Obama, while 13 percent went uncommitted. In this year’s primary, which was held Tuesday amid protests of Joe Biden’s response to the war in Gaza, 40 percent of Dearborn voters backed Biden and 57 percent voted uncommitted—44 points more than in 2012.
The fact that uncommitted won a majority in Dearborn—while receiving 13 percent statewide, compared to 81 percent for Biden—is all the more powerful because the grassroots effort to vote uncommitted, led by groups like Listen to Michigan, began only a few weeks ago. If anything, the results in Dearborn may understate the degree of disgust with Biden among Arab-American and Muslim voters: About 55 percent of Dearborn residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent; the initial vote counts, which likely included a higher vote share of Arab-American voters, had as much as 74 percent of people choosing uncommitted.
Meanwhile, there were clear signs around college campuses that—as polls have shown for........