More than 43,000 New Jerseyans cast a ballot for “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday in a protest vote targeted at the Biden administration’s pro-Israel policies.
President Joe Biden received more than 88% of the vote, but supporters of the uncommitted movement say that by winning 9%, they’ve shown the Biden administration how many New Jerseyans disapprove of his handling of the war in Gaza. Former Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policy on the war, said the vote total sends an unequivocal message that Democrats are dissatisfied.
“We know that New Jersey is a state where very few people make a habit of voting in primaries because they usually are not contested, so the fact that a significant number of people did make that choice is powerful, and it was a good opportunity for people to express their perspective,” said Jaffer, a Bergen County Democrat.
Uncommitted earned 43,758 votes, according to projected counts from the Associated Press. That’s a bit fewer than the 50,000 vote target organizers had before the election, said Isaac Jimenez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. But his takeaway is that plenty of Democrats are “not in lockstep with the Democratic Party at all.”
“This is a national movement and I’d say 40,000 people voting, it’s no small feat,” said Jimenez. “It’s a very clear warning that they are failing to recognize … that many young voters, many Arab or Muslim voters, especially in swing states, are not along for the ride in November until there’s a cease-fire.”
The movement to vote uncommitted was spawned in Michigan by progressives who wanted to protest Biden for supporting continued military aid to Israel and his initial hesitancy to call for a cease-fire. So far, the campaign will send 36 delegates from nine states to the Democratic Party’s national convention, though Biden is expected to be named the party’s presidential nominee (he has 3,872 delegates).
The uncommitted option was on 18 of the 20 delegate districts in the state. In order to send representation to the convention, candidates must receive 15% of the party’s vote statewide or 15% in the district. New Jersey’s districts combine two legislative districts into one, and each district has between three and six delegates for a total of 146.
One of those delegates will be from New Jersey because uncommitted won more than 15% of the vote in a single delegate district, one that includes voting districts in Essex and Passaic counties. Nearly 20% of Democrats chose uncommitted in the delegate districts that include parts of Paterson, a city with a large Muslim and Arab population. Some Paterson voting districts saw uncommitted nab more than 60%.
Jimenez said delegates from different states are coordinating to continue to call for an anti-war agenda at the convention.
“I think there is definitely a lot of energy for Gaza across the state, and it’s just going to take time to organize so more people can hear about it,” Jimenez said.
Prospect Park Mayor Mohammed Khairullah challenged Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. in the 9th Congressional District, running a campaign largely focused on criticizing Pascrell for his support of Israel. He did not topple Pascrell — Khairullah won 23% to Pascrell’s 77% — but Khairullah suggested the 14-term congressman is losing support. The last time Pascrell faced a challenger in 2020, he won nearly 81% of the vote.
Khairullah noted that he announced his candidacy in March and the uncommitted movement landed on the ballot in April, giving both campaigns little time to reach everyone they wanted. But he believes they both sent a strong message, and in the five months between now and the November election, “that message is going to be magnified,” he said.
Khairullah said he vowed that in his concession call, he’d demand Pascrell to call for an immediate and sustained cease-fire instead of the conditional cease-fire Pascrell supports. Without a change in Pascrell’s stance, he said the Muslim and Arab community will not vote for him in November.
Khairullah said he wouldn’t be surprised if voters turn to Trump, despite the racist rhetoric he has spewed about Muslims.
“At this point, people are watching their loved ones being massacred. I think their response is out of pure emotional desire to take action against the president who is allowing it to happen,” he said.
Jaffer also echoed that, saying young people are “soul searching and questioning” whether the Democratic Party represents them.
“I feel like the Democratic Party really risks losing an entire generation of voters because of the way they’ve treated not only Gaza, but students on campuses, faculty members, the freedom of speech of young people,” she said. “I think it goes beyond just this particular moment issue or this particular moment.”
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