The "uncommitted" protest vote in Michigan was a failure

If I was a Michigan voter, I might have voted "uncommitted" yesterday to send a message to Biden about his Gaza policy. I still would vote for Biden over Trump in the general, of course. But why not use an otherwise meaningless mostly uncontested primary as an opportunity to express my disappointment.

But to send a message, it would need a lot of support. Just a small statistical blip is not enough to send a clear message to Biden about his policies. Despite all the hype for the uncommitted protest, "uncommitted" got just 13.2% of the vote in the Democratic primary. Maybe that sounds significant, until you realize that there always is an uncommitted vote when an incumbent democrat is running uncontested in a primary in the reelection year. In 2012, there was a 10.7% "uncommitted" vote in the Michigan Democratic primary. That was not the sign that Barack Obama was in any real danger of losing Michigan or reelection later that year. In fact he won both. I don't think the difference between 13.2% and 10.7% is enough to represent a large groundswell of Biden backlash this year, As much as I would like it if Biden changed his policy towards Israel and the conflict in Gaza the uncommitted vote in Michigan wasn't loud enough to deliver a clear protest message.