Leaders in 'uncommitted' and 'abandon Harris' movements reflect on Trump's victory and early moves
"Uncommitted" leaders say they felt Harris didn’t do enough to distance herself from Biden or outline how she’d handle the war differently. Now, they’re closely watching Donald Trump’s early moves to see what comes next.
Vice President Kamala Harris had just 107 days as a presidential candidate to change the minds of hundreds of thousands of “uncommitted” Democratic primary voters nationwide, many of whom voted in protest of President Joe Biden and his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
But leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement and the “abandon Harris” campaign say they felt Harris didn’t do enough to distance herself from Biden or outline how she’d handle the war differently.
And now, they’re closely watching President-elect Donald Trump’s early moves on the Middle East and specifically on Gaza to see what comes next.
“There’s been many ways in which Harris chose the path of Liz Cheney and the donor class on a range of issues, and abandoning working families in places like Dearborn, who make up the people Democrats claim to be fighting for,” said Uncommitted National Movement co-founder Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American activist and the sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. “And I think at the same time, Trump came in and fed a community that was grieving and in despair with lies and false promises.”
Trump ultimately ended up carrying Dearborn, Michigan, a majority-Arab American city, by more than 6 percentage points — a massive swing from Biden’s nearly 40-point win there in 2020. But most Dearborn voters also voted against Trump, who got about 43% support in a deeply split field.
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