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Incumbent US President Biden and former President Trump have officially won enough delegates to become their party’s respective nominees in November’s presidential elections. Biden and Trump have both won almost every single primary thus far, but with yesterday’s primaries in Georgia, Washington, and Mississippi, they finally reached the threshold of delegates needed to win the Democratic and Republican nominations.
The two largest political parties have given voters the option of two aging politicians who started their careers in the 1970s, who have already both been president, and largely hold similar conservative views. Both men have also become highly controversial figures.
Biden is hemorrhaging support among voters, especially young people, in large part due to his unconditional support for Israel as it carries out genocide in Gaza. However, support from progressives and young people was already waning due to his inability to deliver on any progressive measures. His massive social spending package, “Build Back Better”, failed early into his presidency because conservative lawmakers from his own party shot it down in Congress. After a right-wing Supreme Court overturned abortion rights for millions of women in 2022, Biden refused to take measures to restore them, such as making abortion legal on federally owned land, or expanding the Supreme Court so that ultra-conservative justices no longer have a majority. Biden has not even been willing to use his vast executive authority to eliminate student debt, despite being comfortable using his authority to institute draconian policies against migrants at the border.
“I will not be voting for someone committing genocide.”
Young people are turning their backs on Biden and looking for other options.
BT spoke to voters at the March For Gaza in D.C., which was attended by three different independent presidential candidates. pic.twitter.com/ANuBz8Mk0I
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 19, 2024
In the 2020 presidential elections, Trump became one of the few recent Presidents who didn’t win a second term, leaving office with a 34% approval rating. Trump had come under fire for his COVID-19 policies that led to the United States becoming the epicenter of the virus, and the state repression against the mass movement against police brutality in the summer of 2020.
Despite marketing himself as a political outsider, Trump was comfortable carrying out typically aggressive US foreign policy goals. In early 2020, Trump gave orders to assassinate beloved Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who had led the struggle against terrorism in parts of West Asia. Trump toed the line on unconditional US support for Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. He also intensified the unilateral coercive measures against Cuba and Venezuela, provoking unprecedented economic crises in both countries due to the stranglehold measures on their economies.
Biden’s support of genocide threatens his chances at reelection
Despite having secured the Democratic Party nomination, Biden’s performance in the primaries as the incumbent President has led supporters to worry about his potential for victory over Trump. In several primaries thus far, large numbers of registered Democrats have cast protest votes against Biden. This movement began in Michigan, a key state for election strategy, which contains a large Arab-American population that is fed up with Biden’s support for Israeli genocide. Since the Michigan primary last month, in which over 100,000 Democratic voters cast protest votes against Biden, several other states have registered large percentages of protest votes. The largest percentage was in US-occupied Hawai’i, which turned out 29.1% of “uncommitted” votes out of the total primary, the largest percentage of anti-Biden protest votes thus far.
On March 12, the primary took place in Georgia, a state that was pivotal in Biden’s narrow 2020 election win. 2.2% of Georgia registered Democratic voters ended up casting protest votes against Biden, which accounts for 52% of Biden’s margin of victory in 2020.
GOOD MORNING to the 6,455 Georgia voters who chose to #LeaveItBlank with @listentogeorgia—2.2% of the electorate. Those voters are 52% of Biden's 2020 margin of victory in GA, in a primary w/ less than 12% of 2020 turnout. CLEAR proof Biden can't support genocide & win GA. 🧵 https://t.co/RY2y3v9fP6
— Marisa Pyle says VOTE BLANK in GA! (@marisapk) March 13, 2024
