'Uncommitted' voters want meeting with Kamala Harris before supporting her
DEARBORN, Mich. (FOX 2) - A group of Democrats who call themselves the Uncommitted National Movement have been critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, and are now aiming their efforts at Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ahead of Harris' visit to Michigan on Wednesday as part of her presidential campaign, members of the movement held a press conference at Haraz Coffee House in Dearborn.
"I’m a Palestinian myself. I have family that lives in occupied West Bank, and I hear the stories – generations of stories," said the co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, Layla Elabed.
The group, representing uncommitted voters this election season, is sending a message to Harris: They want significant change in America’s policy in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, and want to meet with Harris before they’re willing to support the presumptive democratic nominee for president.
"We want her to stop sending bombs to kill people we love, in Gaza and in the region," said another Uncommitted National Movement co-founder, Abbas Alawieh.
Alawieh is also a Michigan Uncommitted Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate.
Thirty Democratic delegates plan to head to the DNC as uncommitted in Chicago later this month, including Alawieh.
The Uncommitted National Movement and its supporters call the ongoing war a genocide, and want the U.S. government to stop supporting Israel in its attacks on Palestinian territories.
"This movement has always been about policy shift, about policy change, about saving Palestinian lives in the immediate," Elabed said.
The DNC reported 99% of Democratic delegates casting ballots have already selected Harris to be the party’s presidential nominee, however uncommitted delegates still want a chance to speak with Harris.
"Our movement mobilized voters, contacted over 1.5 million voter contacts here in Michigan," Alawieh said.
For him and his group, an arms embargo and an immediate cease-fire are at the top of their demands.
"Our government here in the United States, unfortunately, is not a neutral actor when we're talking about negotiations around the ceasefire," Alawieh told FOX 2. "Our government is actually sending more and more bombs as our leaders are telling us they're trying to stop the bombs. There is an inherent contradiction there, and our community knows that what needs to happen is for us to stop sending bombs."
More than 100,000 voted 'Uncommitted' in protest vote against Biden in Michigan presidential primary
Andy Levin, a prominent Michigan political figure who is Jewish, is a supporter of the "uncommitted" vote campaign. He sees the Israel-Gaza conflict as potentially damaging to Biden in the general election if it continues.