DEARBORN, Mich. – The movement to deny President Biden the Democratic nomination in Michigan could end up costing the president the crucial swing state in November.
"I think this state is in play," Ronald Stockton, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told Fox News Digital. "From a Biden point of view, I think he’s got a really good chance to lose this state."
The comments come as Biden, who has garnered more than enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, turns his attention to a likely 2020 rematch with former President Trump in November. One such state that figures to play an outsized role in that battle is Michigan, a critical Midwestern swing state which has seen tight battles in the previous two presidential elections.
Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Michigan by under half a percentage point in 2016 on his way to the White House, but was denied a second term after losing the state by just under 3 points in 2020.
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Polls indicate a close race is brewing in the state again, with the latest Real Clear Politics polling average showing Trump with a narrow 3.3 point lead over Biden in Michigan.
Compounding matters for Biden are multiple movements out of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, a city with the highest per capita Muslim population in the country that has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the president’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.
Those voters represent what has in recent elections been a dependable voting bloc for Democrats, with Biden winning 74.29% of the Dearborn vote in 2020. Biden also carried Wayne County overall, where Dearborn and the nearby suburb of Dearborn Heights are located, carrying 68.12% of the vote.
But Biden’s electoral grip on the area is being threatened by the "Listen to Michigan" and "Abandon Biden" movements that sprung up out of Dearborn, leading to over 100,000 voters to mark "Uncommitted" on their ballots in the state’s Democratic primary instead of supporting the president’s bid for re-election. Worse for Biden, those that helped lead the movement show no intention of rallying around the president in November.
"The grassroots movement we’ve built in the way that people have felt inspired and re-engaged in being politically active, we felt it was incumbent upon us as an organization to keep that growing," Lexis Zeidan, one of the lead organizers and the spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, told Fox News Digital while noting that her organization has plans to expand to swing states and to continue organizing ahead of the general election.
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Samraa Luqman, who worked as the Abandon Biden co-chair in Michigan, echoed a similar sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that their movement will continue to expand and target costing Biden re-election.
"I think it sent a message as well that it's going to be disastrous for Democrats if they don't start paying attention and listening and changing their stance," Luqman said.
According to Zeidan, the movements should send a clear message to Democrats that continued support for Israel's offensive could cost the party even beyond the presidential election.
"Biden is the example," Zeidan said. "Telling the Democratic Party, putting them on notice that even for down ballot elections, for those Congress people that are not pro-Palestinian and calling for cease-fires, their positions are at stake."
The political organizers of the movement have found support from the community’s religious leaders, who have expressed equal disdain for the administration’s foreign policy decisions in recent months.
"It’s a genocide… in Metro Detroit alone, we have over 40 families who have lost family," Sufian Nabhan, the executive director of the Islamic Center of Detroit, told Fox News Digital.
Nabhan said the hope among members of the community was that Biden would call for a cease-fire and play a role in ending the hostilities in Gaza, but instead is now seen as "supporting the genocide, supporting it with our tax money."
"I feel betrayed," Nabhan said. "We elect Biden, and we were hoping that he will do a change, that he will respect the community that put him in office. But unfortunately, he did not."
Islamic Center of Wisdom Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi told Fox News Digital that he was a supporter of Biden’s 2020 bid but has since lost faith in the president.
"Unfortunately, President Biden, while he is giving some lip service to Palestinians and to the Muslim community, but in action he is hurting everyone. And he is hurting himself," Elahi said.
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The Biden campaign has been keenly aware of the issues bubbling up in Dearborn, sending campaign officials to the city to meet with Arab American and Muslim leaders in January. But the move was called out as "dehumanizing" by Democratic Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who argued that it was "not a moment for electoral politics."
"Over the course of now, 115 days, Israel murdered more than 26,000 Gazans and displaced over 2 million," the mayor told CNN in an interview after the meeting with the campaign. "For us, this is an issue that demands action and not lip service. This is an issue that requires policymakers to come talk about taking a different course of action. This is not a conversation you have with campaign staff."
The White House received that message loud and clear, opting the next month to send top administration officials to Dearborn in an attempt to mend relationships. That outreach was also rebuked, with Democratic state Rep. Abraham Aiyash vowing there would be no further dialogue between the two sides unless the administration shifted gears in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Stockton pointed out that the movement to ditch Biden has expanded beyond the Muslim community, picking up support from young voters who are also typically a dependable demographic for Democrats.
"Those people under 30 are abandoning Biden," Stockton said. "They’re so heavily against this war and against Biden’s policy. It’s a generational thing, and I am talking nationally now, that’s a national pattern."
Worse yet for the president, Stockton argued that the disapproval of Biden’s handling of the Middle East will likely outweigh the preferences many of those voters have for his other policies.
"It’s not going to be enough," Stockton said. "I’m not sure what Biden can do. He’s thinking; ‘I can mobilize people on the basis of every other issue.’ I don’t think that will be enough."
