By Tait Manning
The decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine reached a flashpoint on October 7, 2023. Since then, widespread protests in support of Palestine have erupted across the United States. Among the responses to the Biden-Harris administration’s continued backing of Israel are the resignations of 12 government officials. One of those officials is Lily Greenberg Call, a 26-year-old who served as the former Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff at the Department of the Interior. She resigned in May, becoming the first Jewish appointee to leave the administration over its policy on Gaza.
“I think I really felt like, while I was in the administration, that I was watching the president, my boss, the most powerful person in the country, use Jewish safety as a justification for supporting and enabling the slaughter of Palestinians,” Greenberg Call said. “I don’t think oppressing Palestinians is keeping Jewish people safe. And to see him make us the face of the American war machine in that way is incredibly dangerous for Jews.”
Some voters have turned to third-party candidates who represent anti-war and anti-racist platforms. The Uncommitted National Movement, an anti-war protest campaign, has called on the Biden-Harris administration to intervene and stop Israel’s assault on Gaza. The movement mobilized over 100,000 Democratic voters during the Michigan primaries to cast “uncommitted” ballots.
Erika Lycan, who volunteered with the Uncommitted Movement during the Michigan primaries, is also the co-founder of the Voter Collective for Co-Liberation. The grassroots organization aims to mobilize voters to support progressive candidates who are, in their words, “pro-Palestine, pro-liberation, anti-genocide, and anti-oppression.”
“People are devastated and angry with the candidates,” Lycan said. “But I think for most people, it’s like it lit a fire under them and mobilized them. I’m sure people have dropped off or decided not to vote, but for a lot of people, that fear or anger or frustration has been funneled into, ‘No, I want to build third-party power because I want more choices than just bad and terrible.’”
Lycan added that many voters have turned to third-party movements because they feel their interests are not being represented. According to Pew Research, as of April 2024, only 22% of Americans said they trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.”
“There are some great elected officials,” Lycan said. “I’m not saying everyone sucks, but I do think that a lot of people feel like, ‘I vote every four years, and then my community is not taken care of, or they’re left behind, or they’re getting bombed and killed.’ Depending on your identity, I think people feel like those in power, even the ones they voted for, are not representing them.”
This discontent has also motivated some pro-Palestine Americans not only to withhold votes from the Democratic Party but to run for office themselves. Sadaf Ali, a professor of electronic media and film studies at Eastern Michigan University, is running as a write-in candidate for her local park commission in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan.
“I think October 7 woke up everybody, including activists who saw how intertwined our communities and governments are with a foreign entity, a white supremacist colony in another country,” Ali said. “We see colonizing happening with our tax dollars, people being slaughtered. This is the most documented genocide in the history of this planet. Palestinians are showing us their dead children. I think people are done—they’re not going to tolerate it anymore.”
Ali added that the Democratic establishment has alienated many voters by failing to engage with their concerns.
“The Harris administration had an opportunity to have a real, substantial conversation with Muslim and Arab voters, and Kamala Harris didn’t want to do that,” Ali said. “She’s been, in my opinion, almost snarky in her approach to Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians, and she’s been courting moderate Republicans instead of reaching out to us. As a Muslim, as a human being, you see a genocide, and she had an opportunity to reach out to many Palestinian advocates and activists, but she didn’t.”
As Trump and Harris remain neck and neck in polls, it remains to be seen how these shifts in voter sentiment will influence the outcome of the election. One thing is clear: the Democratic Party faces growing challenges in retaining the support of key voter groups.
