Last week, the movement of uncommitted protest voters who withheld support from President Joe Biden over his administration’s continued support for Israel’s war in Gaza gave its firmest anti-Trump statement yet, leading many to wonder if the group had softened its stance toward Kamala Harris—or might even endorse Democrats. Harsh criticism followed from all directions: What did the group really believe now?

Layla Elabed, a leader and founder of the movement, told me days later on the phone what happened. Elabed played a key role in diverting some 100,000 votes away from Biden during the Democratic primary. After several failed attempts to push Harris’ campaign toward meaningful policy changes on U.S. support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, the group issued a pointed non-endorsement of the Democratic candidate. Now, as Elabed weighs the dangers of another Trump presidency—alongside hesitance to support Harris amid ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli actions in Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond—she still questions whether there is any “right” way to vote. Elabed explained to me this thinking and candidly addressed the internal decisions of the movement. Our interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Aymann Ismail: Can you tell me what’s happened in the lead-up to the election, after all the activity at the Democratic National Convention?

Layla Elabed: Things have been really hard ever since we came out with our non-endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, while also urging voters to block Trump. Abbas [Alawieh, a fellow leader of the movement] came out publicly in the Washington Post saying that if it was a binary choice between Harris or Donald Trump, he would vote for Harris. And then Lexi [Zeidan, another leader] with her anti-Trump video. They are being skinned alive by the community who are frustrated, feeling like we’ve betrayed the grassroots movement and are offering a soft endorsement of Vice President Harris by saying how bad Trump is. Folks are taking that as, “Oh, so you want us to vote for Kamala Harris?”

That isn’t what you’re doing?

We are signaling that to have the most fertile political landscape to continue what we do, we need to block Trump. And in a battleground state like Michigan, voting for Jill Stein could essentially help Donald Trump. There is a percent of uncommitted voters whose hard line is “without a policy change, there is no way in hell I could ever vote for anybody in this administration, or vote for any candidate that hasn’t promised that they will protect innocent people.” I get that. I am one of those people, and intend on........

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