‘Uncommitted’ Supporters Dance and Celebrate in Dearborn

At an election night party, a group that organized a protest against President Biden in Michigan played up the thousands of votes in support of its cause.

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A Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday hosted an election night party for supporters of the “uncommitted” movement.

Long before the final votes had been tallied in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary race, organizers of a protest movement against President Biden’s support for Israel had declared victory, dancing to the tunes of traditional Palestinian music at a Lebanese restaurant in Dearborn, the center of the state’s Arab American community.

“This is a resounding victory for our country’s pro-Palestinian, antiwar movement,” said Abbas Alawieh, a spokesman for Listen to Michigan, a group that sprang into existence three weeks ago urging voters to cast their ballots for the “uncommitted” option in the state’s primary instead of Mr. Biden.

The crowd of roughly 250 people broke into cheers shortly after 9 p.m., when Mr. Alawieh announced that the number of “uncommitted” votes had surpassed former President Donald J. Trump’s roughly 11,000-vote margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in Michigan in 2016. Organizers had set that as a public milestone for their effort, perhaps strategically aiming low.

A rabbi led a singsong chant calling for “no more war” and “cease-fire now” and offered a prayer for peace in Hebrew and English.

ImageSeveral speakers at the event suggested they would return to the Democratic fold if President Biden changed his stance on Gaza.Credit…Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

By 10:30 p.m., more than 34,000 votes for “uncommitted” had been counted, with only about a quarter of the total vote tallied. Strong turnout in the Detroit area meant that the movement could win enough votes to send at least one delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

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