Washington, Feb 27 (EFE).- US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump won their respective Michigan primaries on Tuesday, but were unable to shake their respective challengers from the contest.
In the Republican race, Trump will continue to face Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and ex-US ambassador to the United Nations, who said she will not abandon the race, despite the fact that she only obtained 27.2 percent of the votes with 50 percent counted, compared to 67.6 percent going to the former president.
Meanwhile, despite being the only Democratic candidate with a real chance, Biden’s main challenger in the presidential race that could considerably complicate his re-election looks to be the voters opposed to his government’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
With 40 percent counted, Biden obtained 80.6 percent support, while 13.5 percent checked the “uncommitted” box – the equivalent of a blank vote.
Two organizations representing the Arab and Muslim vote and the most progressive Democrats, Listen to Michigan and Our Revolution, respectively, had urged voters to check the ‘uncommitted’ box in protest of the support that the US is providing to Israel in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The goal of the movement was for at least 10 percent of the votes cast in the Democratic primary to be blank, in an attempt to push the Biden administration to change course in its policy towards the Middle East and to demand a ceasefire from Israel.
Although the count is incomplete, their objective looks to have been achieved in a key swing state for the election.
In the 2020 election, Michigan, which has counties with large Arab populations, was key to Biden’s victory.
The state determines 117 delegates for the Democratic convention and the ‘uncommitted’ vote, and although it cannot derail the nomination of the president, it can serve to air the discontent of young voters and areas with a large Arab and Muslim populations during the party convention, which will be held in August, and at which Biden is expected to be officially named as presidential candidate.
On the Republican side, despite another defeat for Haley, she told CNN minutes after the polls closed that she is not withdrawing from the race and that she will participate in Super Tuesday since “we have a country to save.”
Tuesday’s primaries held little weight as Michigan Republicans awarded only 16 of their 55 delegates according to the results. The remaining delegates will be assigned at the party’s state convention on Mar. 2, one more peculiarity of the complex and lengthy primary calendar in the US.
Haley is Trump’s only remaining rival in the primaries and on Tuesday she racked up a new defeat after losing the primaries in her state, South Carolina, on Saturday with 40 percent of the votes, a respectable figure that has allowed her to justify her continuing.
However, she heads into Super Tuesday, a day in which 15 states are called to vote, including Texas and California, with few possibilities.
With the results of Michigan still to be added, Trump has 110 delegates of the 1,215 that he needs in order to be named the Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee during July 15-18. Haley has 20 delegates.
It looks like nothing will stop the former president, not even all his pending court cases, including four criminal trials for crimes such as his attempts to invalidate the elections, bribery, the retention of classified documents or his relationship with the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. EFE
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