At the beginning of March, the group Listen to Wisconsin was just beginning to form. Its goal: Urge Democratic voters in Wisconsin to choose the “uninstructed” option on the primary election ballot to show President Joe Biden that a stark change in policy regarding military support for Israel is key to his success in November.
Listen to Wisconsin leaders told the Cap Times they would consider the movement a success if 20,000 voters selected “uninstructed.” That 20,000 would represent Biden's margin of victory over then-President Donald Trump in Wisconsin's November 2020 election.
Based on the April 2 election results, nearly 48,000 Wisconsin voters agreed with putting Biden on notice by choosing “uninstructed” over the incumbent president.
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In Dane County, Biden secured nearly 83% of the Democratic vote while the uninstructed option gained 14.5% — narrowly missing the 15% required to gain representation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission is considering a draft of regulations that will govern how members of the public can observe election proceedings.
Listen to Wisconsin organizers called the results an “incredible victory” and a clear message for the president.
“The pathway to the presidency this November is going to run through Wisconsin and in 2020 Wisconsin was the tipping point state that gave the election over to Biden with 20,862,” said group organizer Reema Ahmad. “Even local elections are decided by thin margins. Our power as voters in Wisconsin is those margins.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler issued a statement late Tuesday night celebrating Biden’s primary victory — banking 88% of the Democratic vote statewide after the Associated Press called the race just before midnight.
Wikler hailed the numbers as “an affirmation of Biden and a rejection of Trump,” adding that the voting numbers “reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to Wisconsin families and the issues they care about.”
Trump secured just over 79% of the Republican vote statewide. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — who dropped out of the Republican race for president in early March but remained on the Wisconsin ballot — gained more than 12% of the vote.
Wikler made no mention of the tens of thousands of his party’s members who also rejected Biden — or at least his controversial support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza hit nearly 33,000 last week, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The Israeli government estimates that about 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed by the Hamas militant group in attacks on Oct. 7 that sparked Israel’s military response.
Advocates for a ceasefire in the region are raising the alarm that Israel’s ongoing missile strikes and ground offensives in Gaza are targeting civilians and amount to genocide.
“It is undeniable that there is a growing anti-war movement that is not going to wait until after the elections,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founder and executive director of Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action, organizations that work for immigrant and workers’ rights in Wisconsin and joined the Listen to Wisconsin coalition.
Political scholars have said that ballot protest movements like this and the general level of dissent within the ranks of Democratic voters send a clear message to the Biden administration that something needs to change before November if the incumbent Democrat hopes to secure the crucial support of more liberal-leaning Democrats who are calling for peace in Gaza.
“This is not really going to cost him the ability to be the Democratic nominee pretty easily, but it will be something that he and his campaign will have to pay attention to,” Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison and director of the campus’ Elections Research Center, told the Cap Times last month.
The Wisconsin uninstructed movement followed a similar campaign urging Democratic voters to select the “uncommitted” option in Michigan’s primary in late February — an effort that garnered more than 100,000 votes and sent a clear message to the Biden administration. Since then, similar movements have taken form across the country including in states such as Washington, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Georgia.
Both Biden and Trump have already been named the presumptive nominees for their political party's conventions this summer.
That said, uncommitted and uninstructed campaigns across the country have gained enough support to send a handful of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
Minnesota will send 11 delegates while Michigan and Washington will each send two. Movement organizations have said they plan to bring their anti-war agenda to the Democratic convention and hope to influence the party platform.
"This whole movement was never about unseating Biden," said Layla Elabed, spokesperson for the Uncommitted National Movement. "We're not going to be ousting him as the party nominee. The goal of this movement is to wake Biden up to the fact that his unconditional support of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's genocidal actions is costing him amongst his base and amongst key states in his pathway to the White House."
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 7.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks from Hamas, the Biden administration has repeatedly defended the United States’ funneling of billions of dollars to Israel’s military, maintaining that the Israeli government has the “right to defend itself.”
Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire,” stopping short of urging the halt in violence to be permanent as many advocates for peace are calling for.
In his State of the Union address, Biden told Congress and the nation that more humanitarian aid needed to be allowed into Gaza. In late March, the president signed Congress’ $1.2 trillion government funding bill that included additional military aid for Israel.
“We need this administration to change course,” Ahmad said.
With the primary election over, campaign activity is expected to ramp up across the critical swing state leading into the November general election and Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
Trump held his first Wisconsin campaign rally of the election cycle in Green Bay Tuesday. Biden will visit Madison on Monday, his third visit to Wisconsin since the start of the year.
