With little apparent drama ahead of Washington's March 12 presidential primary, progressive activists are aggressively pressing Democrats to vote for the "uncommitted delegates" option in protest of President Joe Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
At a news conference Monday outside the federal building in downtown Seattle, supporters of the movement harshly criticized Biden for U.S. military aid to Israel and for vetoing United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire — with one speaker calling him "genocide Joe."
They warned Biden is alienating an important swath of the Democratic Party base during a year in which he's already facing dumpster fire polling numbers.
Tacoma City Councilmember Olgy Diaz, who has long worked in Democratic politics, said she feels "cheated" by Biden's response to the ongoing conflict.
"I can no longer stand idly by when we have a perfect and timely opportunity right here in Washington to send a clear message that standing in the way of a ceasefire is not the way that Washington voters want them to govern," she said.
The activists, including Palestinian Americans, Democratic Socialists, and union leaders, argued Washington can apply pressure to the Biden administration and his reelection campaign with a strong "uncommitted" showing in the state's primary.
Serene Salam, a Palestinian American college student from Bellingham, said what should be a beautiful time in her life is being "overshadowed by debilitating sorrow" over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. "I am here today to stand up for my people, because right now they are dying at the hands of all of our tax dollars," she said.
Barring an abrupt shift, Biden is expected to sail through the primary season and be formally nominated for reelection at the Democratic National Convention this summer in Chicago.
Backers of the "uncommitted delegates" campaign hope to win enough votes in Washington and other states to send delegates to the convention who are not pledged to Biden.
The movement garnered attention since Michigan's recent Democratic primary, in which more than 100,000 voters selected the uncommitted option — about 13% of the vote. Biden still easily carried the state with more than 80% of the vote.
In Washington, the campaign has been endorsed by UFCW 3000, the state's 50,000-member grocery workers union; as well as by The Stranger, Seattle's alternative left-wing newspaper; and a smattering of elected Democrats.
The movement has been pretty much the only activity ahead of an otherwise dull primary, which has not generated any candidate visits as the nation appears headed for a rematch between Biden and Donald Trump.
At the federal building on Monday, some speakers favoring an "uncommitted delegates" vote said they felt like they were being taken for granted by the Biden reelection campaign.
Rebekah Harris Liebermann, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, and a grandchild of Holocaust refugees, said she couldn't stand one minute longer seeing the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, adding: "That it is being done in my name, in my grandparents' name, is a knife in my stomach."
Biden and other administration officials have urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties in its war to eradicate Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. More than 30,000 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed in the retaliatory war.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday called for "an immediate cease-fire" in Gaza, while calling the conditions there "a humanitarian catastrophe," the New York Times reported.
A top Biden campaign official responded to the "uncommitted" movement last week in a National Public Radio interview, saying the president is listening.
Mitch Landrieu, national co-chair of the Biden campaign and former mayor of New Orleans, noted in the interview that Biden has continued to easily sweep primaries despite the criticism.
"We're going to continue to talk to them. We're going to continue to listen to what it is that they have to say," Landrieu said in the interview. "When you're the commander in chief and when, in fact, you are representing the United States' interests, there are no issues that are easy."
Landrieu said the campaign also will ask critics to consider the risks of electing Trump, "who wants to have a Muslim ban ... who is going to be much, much worse than the difficult circumstances that we have right now."
Biden appears on the Democratic primary ballot in Washington along with two longshot challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson, in addition to the "uncommitted delegates" option.
Washington's primary results will allocate 92 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Any candidate receiving at least 15% of the vote (including the uncommitted delegates option) will receive a proportional number of delegates to the convention.
On the Republican side, the Washington ballot includes Trump and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador who is his last remaining rival. Also on the ballot are three candidates who have already ended their campaigns: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Primary ballots in Washington were mailed late last month to the state's 4.8 million registered voters. Ballots must be postmarked by March 12 or deposited in drop boxes by 8 p.m. that day.
As of Friday, more than 600,000 people had already returned ballots for the primary — about 12% of registered voters, according to the Secretary of State's office.
