Michigan’s Democratic primary should have, but probably won’t, teach President Joe Biden a lesson. Maybe diversity isn’t a strength in a state with a heavily Muslim population.
Because of this nation’s unshakeable bipartisan, pro-Israel foreign policy, which includes supporting Israel’s attack on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 terror raid, “uncommitted” received almost 14 percent of the vote and received two delegates.
Another lesson might be this: Mass waves of immigrants bring their ethnic grievances with them, and when they become voters, expect American politicians to adopt those grievances.
Biden lost the election to “uncommitted” in two Muslim-controlled cities, Dearborn and Hamtramck.
Tlaib: Biden Doesn’t Get It
“There is no doubt that a minority of the Democratic Party is deeply upset with Biden over his handling of the war in Gaza, particularly Arab, Muslim and young voters,” NBC reported:
The only question is how big is that minority. And Michigan will continue to be at the forefront of the Biden campaign’s efforts to win those voters back, given its large Muslim population and must-win status for the campaign.
What made the “uncommitted” movement in 2024 unusual was the buy-in from prominent activists and even Democratic elected officials.
Among those voting “uncommitted” was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who is Palestinian American.
Tlaib is a radical leftist, Israel-hating Palestinian and the daughter of immigrants. Her mother is from Ramallah, on the West Bank of the Jordan River; her father is from East Jerusalem.
“I was proud” to vote uncommitted, she said on X:
We must protect our democracy. We must make sure that our government is about us, about the people. When 74 percent of Democrats in Michigan support a cease-fire [in the war], yet President Biden is not hearing us, this is the way we can use our democracy to say listen, listen to Michigan, listen to the families right now that have been directly impacted. But also, listen to the majority of Americans who are saying “enough. “No more wars. No more using our dollars to fund a genocide. No more.” So please, take your family members, use our democratic process to speak up about your core values.
Speaking at a “Listen to Michigan” news conference, NBC reported, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said the war against Hamas “is a core issue that Michigan voters care about and will bring forward to the ballot box in November. It is incumbent upon [Biden] at this point in time to determine the pathway that he wants to take.”
On the last day of January, the Washington Post devoted more than 2,000 words to Muslims who wouldn’t vote for Biden because of U.S. support for Israel. The Post interviewed a man with family in Gaza; 30 members were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
“It is for that reason that Enayah, like many Arab American and Muslim voters in Dearborn — where Arab Americans make up the majority of the population — is resolved not only to withhold his vote from President Biden, but also to actively campaign against him,” the Post reported:
Some Michigan Arabs and Muslims have launched an “Abandon Biden” campaign — part of a broader national movement still getting off the ground — to ensure that those in their community show up to cast their vote, but not for Biden.
The campaign’s organizers, who also oppose Donald Trump, have not yet coalesced around a strategy for the general election. They are still debating whether to encourage voters to support a third-party candidate or to skip the presidential contest altogether while still voting for other offices. Either way, the organizers are telling Muslim and Arab voters that they should show up and vote, rather than stay home, so it is clear that Biden specifically has lost their vote.
The end result for Biden of mass Islamic immigration to Michigan: In Muslim-occupied Dearborn, where residents must endure the Islamic call to prayer, “uncommitted” received 74.46 percent of the vote to Biden’s 22.94 percent. Biden received just 1,141 votes to “uncommited’s” 3,703. In Hamtramck, with a majority Muslim population and city council that imposed the ear-splitting cacophony on the once Polish-American city, the vote was 828 for “uncommitted” to 433 for Biden — 61.24 percent to 32.03.
Statewide, “uncommitted” received 100,450 votes, or 13.3 percent of the vote, second only to Biden.
Immigration-related Voting, Representation
That won’t change or even affect Biden. And he’ll become the Democratic nominee if he’s still alive at convention time.
But his experience suggests that immigrants expect their candidates and elected officials to adopt their own ethnic, historical, and geopolitical anxieties and complaints.
Another example is that of Somali Muslim refugee Ilhan Omar, who represents Minnesota’s Somali-occupied 5th congressional district.
Booted from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee because her anti-Israel, “antisemitic” rants made her a “national security” threat, Omar unabashedly views herself as representing Somali interests. Indeed, she considers herself an asset for the Somali government.
Omar recently said “I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system,” one translation showed. In December 2022, Omar averred that she and the president of Somalia “have a special relationship. I call him uncle and he calls me his girl.”
In 2017, she said the American GIs who fought Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, memorialized in Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War and the subsequent film, were terrorists.
In other words, despite her American citizenship, she views herself as a Somali first, and openly admits that she is a Somali agent of influence inside Congress.
Omar also showed that Third World immigrants bring the graft and corruption of their home countries.
She married her brother, credible reports say, to commit immigration and student-loan fraud. As well, she pumped campaign money into the political consultancy of her husband, a form of self-dealing. She married that consultant, Tim Mynett, after helping wreck his marriage.
She was also investigated for voter fraud.
