Trump’s Primary Slide Overshadows Biden’s Parallel Dip 

RozenskiP / shutterstock.com
RozenskiP / shutterstock.com

The left is ecstatically pointing to recent setbacks former President Donald Trump faced in several Republican primary votes. Despite being the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential elections, thousands of Republicans chose not to vote for him.  

While Trump comfortably won primaries in Wisconsin, Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island, some Republicans voted for politicians who were no longer in the race. In Wisconsin, Trump secured 78.9% of the vote, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley received 12.8%, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis garnered 3.3% of the ballots cast in the primary.  

Similarly, in Connecticut, Trump won 77.8%, with 14% going to Haley and 4.8% remaining uncommitted. In New York, Trump secured 82.1% of the vote, but approximately 20% of the ballots were cast for other candidates. And in Rhode Island, Trump’s victory was only 83.7%, with the other 10.6% of the voters opting for Haley.  

These results echo Trump’s earlier defeat in Florida, where he secured only 81.2% of the primary vote, down from his 94% victory in the state during the 2020 election.  

Democrats eagerly embrace the idea that The Republican Party remains divided, and claim it shows that the allegiance of Haley and her supporters may not entirely shift to Trump. 

But Americans don’t want Biden, either. Biden suffered even greater humiliation in these states by losing the most support to “uninstructed” and “uncommitted” votes. 

In Wisconsin, 8.4% of voters opted for the “uninstructed” option instead of voting for Biden. Like Republicans voting for Haley and DeSantis, 3.1% voted for Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who is no longer in the race.  

Similarly, in Connecticut, the “uncommitted” vote reached 11.5%, while in Rhode Island, 14.9% of voters marked their ballots as “uncommitted.”  

The decline in Biden’s support in the Badger State is mainly due to the efforts of a progressive “Listen to Wisconsin” campaign, which urged voters to protest Biden’s support of Israel. The group aimed to turn 20,000 voters away from Biden, a figure based on his slim margin of victory over Trump in 2020. The results far surpassed their stated goal for the state, standing at more than 48,000 “uninstructed” ballots. 

Despite winning Wisconsin narrowly in 2020, Biden continues to face challenges as voters remain uncommitted rather than supporting him in the primaries.  

President Biden encountered challenges in battleground states like Michigan in March, where approximately 100,000 uncommitted ballots were cast. These votes protested the president’s decision not to advocate for a permanent cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The total uncommitted votes amounted to 13% of the overall vote. As a result, the Michigan uncommitted campaign secured two delegates for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in August. 

Similarly, in Minnesota, nearly 19% of Democratic primary voters opted for uncommitted ballots last month, translating to a substantial count of over 45,900 votes. The campaign advocating for uncommitted votes in Minnesota successfully earned 11 delegates from Biden. Notably, both Michigan and Minnesota have significant Muslim and Arab American populations. 

President Biden’s support within the Arab American voting bloc has declined following his endorsement of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. According to a John Zogby Strategies poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute, only 17.4% of Arab American voters expressed their intention to vote for him in the upcoming 2024 elections.  

Progressive activist Nina Turner responded to these results, stating, “This president must decide if loyalty to Netanyahu is worth delivering Trump the election in November.” 

Voters in swing states may not want Trump in the White House in 2024, but they want Biden even less. These statistics, hidden by Democrats and Biden strategists, show that Biden has a more significant challenge ahead of him than Trump.  

It’s far more productive to highlight Trump’s losses than Biden’s. In many ways, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Biden’s COVID-19. It’s unlikely to go away before the next election, and it will severely impact his chances of a 2024 victory, much like the pandemic contributed to Trump’s loss in 2020. 

Democrats can celebrate a perceived loss of support for Trump however they like. At least Trump is competing on some level with “real” candidates. Biden lost most of his support to someone, anyone, who was not him.