Seattle Times: Push for WA Democrats’ ‘uncommitted [delegates]’ picks up steam

By Jim Brunner

A campaign urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted [delegates]” in Washington’s March 12 presidential primary is rapidly gaining momentum amid protests over President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and worries about his ability to defeat Donald Trump this fall.

The uncommitted option was endorsed Wednesday night by a major state labor union, UFCW 3000, which represents more than 50,000 grocery workers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The Stranger, Seattle’s progressive alternative newspaper, also backed the uncommitted vote in an editorial this week, calling it a way to “push” Biden to take a harder line on ending the devastation in Gaza.

…Rami Al-Kabra, a Bothell City Council member who has been working on the rapidly developing campaign.

…The union vote also reflected worries about Biden’s electability and low-energy bid for reelection thus far, Mizrahi said, pointing to the president doing few public campaign events and fewer news conferences and media interviews than previous presidents.

“Maybe there is a secret reserve of energy,” said Mizrahi, but the union and public hasn’t yet seen it. He said the message of the UFCW vote was “either step aside or start running a hard campaign that will beat Trump.”

…Al-Kabra, the Bothell council member and a Palestinian American, said he and other advocates for an uncommitted vote have sought, mostly fruitlessly, to get Biden and other Democratic elected officials to take a stronger stance toward ending the ongoing deaths and suffering in Gaza.

“For the past five months the president has continued to support what the ICJ [International Court of Justice] is now saying is the possibility of genocide occurring on the people of Gaza, Palestine,” said Al-Kabra, who joined other protesters in a recent demonstration at the state Capitol to call for an immediate cease-fire.

He said he knows people who have lost tens of family members in the war.

…If he does not heed the message of those considering an uncommitted vote, Biden risks alienating an important bloc in the Democratic coalition, said Faheem Khan, of Redmond, general secretary of the American Muslim Advancement Council, which has paid for a website promoting the campaign.

“Ninety percent of our volunteers are the same people who volunteered and campaigned and donated money and countless hours to the Biden campaign,” said Khan. Absent a shift, “none of them are going to do any of that” in 2024, he said.

…Ballots for Washington’s March 12 primary have been mailed out. To participate, voters have to sign a declaration on the ballot envelope stating a Republican or Democratic Party affiliation. Voters can then vote in either the Democratic or the Republican primary — but not both.