DEARBORN, Michigan — Michigan Democrats praised President Joe Biden and his record during a Zoom call before polls closed for a primary that has put pressure on the president for his approach to the Israel–Hamas war and his broader standing in the general election battleground state.
With Biden not holding a Michigan victory party, the Democratic Party went virtual for election night. Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes, Lt. Gov Garlin Gilchrist (D-MI), and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) were joined by Biden campaign co-chairman Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Biden for Michigan Campaign Manager Mike Frosolone, but none of them directly addressed the grassroots campaign that encouraged party members to nominate themselves as “uncommitted” instead of voting for the president.
Stabenow did underscore Michigan as “wonderfully diverse,” adding the state has “wonderful ethnic diversity, and economic diversity, and faith diversity.” Booker, as a black man, reminded attendees of former President Donald Trump‘s own record of “inflaming bigotry, inflaming xenophobia, inflaming hate, inflaming racism,” drawing the contrast that is likely to define the general election.
“We are not afraid of voters,” Gilchrist said. “We are not afraid of people willing to speak out in good faith and good conscience because they have good intentions. And if we are able to coalesce and organize with those people … all we can do is win, win, win.”
Polls closed shortly after the call ended, and the primary was called for Biden, though the “uncommitted” campaign opposing the president’s response to the war had more than 13% support and more than 100,000 votes.
Meanwhile, at Adonis Restaurant in Dearborn, the Listen to Michigan campaign behind the “uncommitted” push hosted an in-person event that provided its activists with a platform to amplify their message while emphasizing the success of their grassroots movement that started only three weeks ago. The campaign aimed for 10,000 votes, Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in Michigan in 2016.
Speakers included Listen to Michigan campaign manager Layla Elabed, Rep. Rashida Tlaib‘s (D-MI) sister, and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, in addition to a Palestinian poet and a Jewish rabbi. A moment of silence was also held for U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell, who died last weekend after self-immolating outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington over the war.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As the campaign waited to see whether more than 15% of the electorate in a congressional district backed its bid, earning it a seat at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, Elabed promised protests.
“Our delegation plans to hold the Democratic nominee accountable to our community’s anti-war agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago,” Elabed wrote in a memo. “See you there.”
