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On Tuesday, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won their respective parties’ primaries in Michigan.
Biden overcame an activist-led protest over his handling of Israel’s war with Hamas, which had about 15% of the vote as of 9:30 p.m.
Biden is on track to win the Democratic nomination for a second term, while the former president is on track to win the Republican nomination for a third consecutive term.
Mr. Trump’s victory further shut down former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s hopes for momentum ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday, when more than a third of the party’s delegates will be contested.
Although Biden comfortably won the Democratic race, the results raised some red flags for the president. He faced organized resistance led by Arabs and Muslim Americans as anger over his administration’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza sparked a campaign to persuade Democratic voters to vote in protest of “irresponsibility.” .
The initiative, called “Listen to Michigan,” is supported by Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and former Rep. Andy Levin and is independent of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Progressive groups such as the organization Our Revolution also supported it. (A spokesperson said Mr. Sanders was not involved in that decision and supports Mr. Biden.)
Even though vote counting was still going on Tuesday night, organizers of the Michigan group deemed their campaign a success.
“We call on President Biden to act now to bring about a permanent ceasefire,” said Leila Elabed, the group’s campaign manager. “The uncommitted vote was a humanitarian vote.”
He said the effort is just getting started and plans are in place to continue pressuring the president in the eight months leading up to the November election.
“I want to thank every Michigander who spoke out today. Exercising your right to vote and participating in our democracy is what makes America great,” Biden said in a statement targeting President Trump. said in a statement on the results, and did not acknowledge the dedicated campaign.
The Michigan primary has been moved up to near the front of this year’s Democratic presidential nominating calendar. With Mr. Biden’s encouragement, party officials demoted Iowa and New Hampshire from their traditional rankings on the calendar in hopes of building a more diverse lineup of early voting states, usually This drew attention and narrowed down the party’s candidates.
Michigan is one of the most important battleground states in the presidential election, and helped propel Trump to the White House in 2016, winning by about 11,000 votes. Four years later, Biden defeated Trump in Michigan by about 150,000 votes.
Activists tried to send a message to Biden about the political costs of supporting Israel, which must win. Dearborn in particular has one of the largest Arab American communities in the United States.
Approximately 146,000 Muslim Americans voted in Michigan’s general election in 2020, according to an analysis by EmGage, a group that works to expand the political power of Muslim Americans.
“This is not an anti-Biden campaign,” Elabed, who is Palestinian-American, recently told CNN. “This is a humanitarian vote. This is a protest vote. This is a vote that tells Biden and his administration that we believe in saving lives.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden is focusing his political efforts on Michigan. In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was on the list of 2020 vice presidential candidates and easily won re-election in a 2022 campaign in which her support for abortion rights played a central role.
The president walked the picket line with the United Auto Workers union during a strike against major automakers in Michigan in September. “You deserve what you earn, and you earn far more than your paycheck,” he said at the time. The UAW endorsed Biden in January.
Michigan’s Republican primary was the first of two races this week to award the state’s 2024 presidential delegates. Mr. Trump has the advantage of attracting more delegates Saturday when the Michigan Republican Party gathers for its convention.
The division in the contest for delegates shows that after the 2020 election, Democrats demoted Iowa and New Hampshire, moved South Carolina and Nevada to the front, and placed Michigan in third place, changing the presidential nominating calendar. This is the result of the Republican reaction to the decision to change. New lineup.
Michigan’s Republican Party opposed the state’s early primary, saying it would violate Republican National Committee rules that limit which states can hold races before March 1. The RNC and Michigan Republican Party devised a hybrid model after Democrats, who control the state Legislature and the governor’s office, moved Michigan’s primary to Feb. 27 despite opposition from Republicans.
As a result, 16 of Michigan’s 55 delegates will be up for grabs in Tuesday’s primary, which will be distributed pro rata based on the results. The remaining 39 awards will be awarded at the party’s convention on Saturday, with three awards going to the delegation’s preferred candidates from each of the state’s 13 congressional districts.
This further complicates the situation. The Michigan Republican Party is in the midst of a battle over who will lead the party, with two contenders for the party chairmanship holding dueling conventions on Saturday.
The RNC and President Trump have confirmed Pete Hoekstra, former congressman and U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, as chair. But election conspiracy theorist Cristina Karamo, whom the state party voted to remove from office in January, has refused to relinquish her power, claiming she was illegally removed from office. A Michigan court on Tuesday upheld her removal as state party chairman.
Hoekstra has a tournament scheduled for Saturday in Grand Rapids. But Karamo also holds tournaments in Detroit. The RNC’s decision to confirm Hoekstra suggested the party would accept delegates from the convention he oversees.
CNN’s Arit John, Diane Gallagher and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
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