Anti-war Michiganders are banding together in the crucial swing state to urge fellow voters to choose the “uncommitted” slot on their Democratic Party primary ballots next week, with the aim of getting President Joe Biden to shift his stance of unwavering support for Israel’s deadly assault on the Gaza Strip.
Now, a centrist Democratic pro-Israel group is running an ad campaign in the state to persuade Michiganders to be vocal in their support of Biden — and tick the box next to his name on the primary ballot.
The ad campaign is the latest effort in the primaries mounted by Democratic Majority for Israel, which is closely aligned with the right-leaning American Israel Public Affairs Committee and fellow centrists of the Mainstream Democrats PAC.
“Voting uncommitted hurts Biden, which helps Donald Trump and his hateful agenda,” says the DMFI ad, which ran on YouTube.
DMFI’s attempt to bolster support for Biden’s campaign comes as the group and its allies are also spending millions of dollars to attack members of Biden’s party. The group’s political action committee, DMFI PAC, has also run ads attacking progressives in the 2024 primary races and spent millions against progressive candidates in recent years.
The moves are a Democrat-focused version of the wider pro-Israel push to unseat members of Congress who criticize Israel’s rights abuses against Palestinians, call for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, and move to limit or restrict arms sales to Israel. The attacks have targeted progressives, particularly members of the Squad.
AIPAC, which shares donors and other connections to DMFI, plans to spend at least $100 million this cycle, making it one of the largest players in Democratic primaries. The group has also run an intensive effort to recruit challengers to run against several Squad members.
Akela Lacy is a Politics Reporter at The Intercept. She was previously The Intercept’s inaugural Ady Barkan Reporting Fellow; prior to that, she was a Politics Fellow in the D.C. Bureau.
