Democrats ignored the uncommitted movement for Gaza in 2024. Now, it’s winning elections

Abbas Alawieh initially thought the uncommitted movement of 2024 had failed.

The insurgent group, which he helped co-found, had gotten more than 700,000 Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on their 2024 presidential primary ballots to pressure the US government to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. But when the group pushed for the Democratic party to add an embargo on arms to Israel in its platform, it didn’t happen. And when they asked to have a Palestinian American speaker address the Democratic national convention, it was also a no-go.

Those failures, said Alawieh, prompted a new solution – one, observers say, that has been shaping Democratic primaries across the country.

“I decided: ‘Oh, actually, the only fix here is we have to take power away from those leaders who are misusing it,” said Alawieh over Yemeni coffee in Dearborn, a city neighboring Detroit that has the highest share of Arab immigrants in the country. In August, Alawieh won the Democratic nomination for Dearborn’s state senate seat, which is safely Democratic. He is expected to win in November.

Alawieh is one example of a larger trend that’s emerged across multiple Democratic primaries, including the marquee victory of progressive Abdul El-Sayed, who won the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open US Senate seat: by linking nominally Arab American concerns, like the war in Gaza, to progressive politics, organizers and campaigns are building winning coalitions.

“We’ve seen a lot of leadership from the Arab American community [and] Muslim American community,” said Amirah Sequeira, director of federal affairs for the Working Families Party, which organizes for progressive change within and outside of the Democratic party. It has been “extraordinarily important” to the progressive victories across the 2026 primaries, she said.

Arab American votes became ‘up for grabs’

Organizing Michigan’s Arab American voters has taken on increasing importance in recent years, as the longstanding community has grown and election margins have tightened. The number of Arab residents grew by 75% from 2010 to 2020, and the group now represents roughly 4% of the state’s electorate, mostly concentrated in metropolitan Detroit, according to data from the Arab American Institute (AAI), a research, policy and civic engagement group.

Until the genocide in Gaza, the Arab community’s growth had primarily benefited Democratic presidential candidates, which had drawn the majority of Arab votes since the mid-2000s, according to AAI data. But in 2024, as the Democratic party refused to change course on the genocide in Gaza, Arab voters shifted away from the Democratic ticket.

A voting station at Dearborn high school in Dearborn, Michigan, on 5 November 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

This shift was especially pronounced in Michigan. The high concentration of Arab voters in certain pockets of the state made it easy for campaigns to target ads and candidate visits, said Maya Berry, executive director of the AAI. While this was something Democrats failed to do, Trump and third-party candidate Jill Stein made campaign stops in Dearborn in 2024, and Republicans blasted mailboxes with literature opposing the war, she said.

“It was a lack of leadership from the [Democratic] campaign to not engage at the level of the candidate when the other guy was showing up to have meals with people,” Berry said. It “was a night-and-day difference”.

The Democratic party’s absence in Arab communities was exactly what uncommitted had hoped to change, said Andy Levin, a former congressman and mentor to Alawieh. Anti-genocide Democratic party activists launched “Listen to Michigan” in the lead-up to that state’s late February primary. They organized primary voters to use the ballot’s “uncommitted” option to indicate support for a ceasefire in hopes that it could get the White House to change course – a tactic that quickly spread to other states. Beyond the moral issue, said Levin, there was a real political issue as well.

“Our point was, President Biden, wake up. We need you to win re-election. We can’t have Donald Trump anywhere near the White House ever again,” said Levin. “And we just can’t see how you can win Michigan if you don’t change course on Gaza.”

On election day, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took just 31% of the vote across Michigan precincts with majority Arab voters, compared with 47% of Arab voters nationally in the 2024 presidential election, according to AAI. Much of the Arab vote shifted to third-party candidates, who took 20% of the vote in the same Michigan precincts, significantly more than the 8% nationally.

The 2024 presidential election showed that Arab American votes “are up for grabs”, said Branden Snyder, organizing director for Michigan’s Working Families Party.

The war in Gaza, and Democrats’ reluctance to oppose it, galvanized not just Arab American voters, but young and progressive voters across backgrounds. Uncommitted’s organizers, who had feet in both worlds, saw themselves fighting a moral battle that had a pragmatic angle: money spent on war meant less for social programs at home. In the process, the genocide became politically entwined with the broader progressive movement.

‘Muslim issues are American issues’

Uncommitted’s strategy of linking what were traditionally considered Arab American issues to broader progressive politics has turned into electoral work and support across many of this year’s primary upsets.

“The genocide in Gaza has obviously exponentially increased involvement in politics” for Arab voters, as well as for progressives and young people, said WFP’s Sequeira. But “issues of affordability, housing, healthcare are central to those communities as well”, she said.

Two other uncommitted co-founders, Layla Elabed and Lexis Zeidan, have since founded Arab Americans for Progress in metropolitan Detroit. The group runs a fellowship program to train Arab Americans for leadership and helps organize grassroots efforts like door-knocking and mailers for candidates, which it did for Alawieh, said Elabed. The group has also prioritized building relationships with Black residents through a recurring discussion group and events like an iftar solidarity dinner during Ramadan.

Abbas Alawieh during an election night watch party in Dearborn, Michigan, on 27 February 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Other organizations have also bridged a common cause between progressive groups and Arab voters. This includes the work of Emgage Action, which lobbies Congress and endorses candidates addressing concerns for Arab Muslim voters. In 2026, their endorsements stretched across 14 states, including Michigan, Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey. Although the group is bipartisan, the Islamophobia pushed by Republican officials has led Emgage to endorse progressive Democratic candidates, said Nada Al-Hanooti, the group’s national deputy organizing director. That has been especially pronounced since December, said Al-Hanooti, after Republican representatives from Texas launched the anti-Muslim “Sharia-Free America” congressional caucus in the US House of Representatives.

Emgage has organized canvassers to knock on doors, coordinated mailers and sent text messages for some of the year’s most notable progressive wins across the country. In Michigan, that included Arab Muslim candidates Alawieh and El-Sayed, as well as white progressive Will Lawrence and the Michigan state representative Donavan McKinney, a Black Detroiter who bested the incumbent US representative Shri Thanedar in a safely Democratic district.

In Florida, Emgage backed upset candidate Angie Nixon, who bested a former national security official to win the Democratic nomination for Senate by 12 points. As a state lawmaker, Nixon had been the lone backer of a ceasefire resolution in Florida’s house in November 2023. In New Jersey, Emgage turned out canvassers, developed mailings and reached out to Muslim voters by text to increase support for Adam Hamawy, a Palestinian American doctor. In a field of 13 candidates, Hamawy won the Democratic nomination for the state’s 12th congressional district.

Emgage’s strategy has been to endorse candidates aligned with the group on policy, not identity alone, said Al-Hanooti. “Muslim issues are American issues,” she said. “We’re here to prove that you need our vote in order to win, and you need to start visiting our communities.”

All of it is a sign that Arab and Muslim Americans are building real power, said Razi Jafri, a journalist who covered the uncommitted movement in a documentary of the same name.

“What’s fascinating about Abbas [Alawieh] is that his trajectory embodies this evolution,” from representation alone to shaping politics and coalitions, said Jafri. Alawieh and El-Sayed have even fielded calls and meetings with Kamala Harris recently. “That transition from protest to power building is really incredible,” Jafri said.