The Big Uncommitted and Biden’s Lackluster Reelection Campaign

By Adam Garrie, The Kennedy Beacon

Prior to this election cycle, few people ever discussed the tradition of “Uncommitted” voters. But in 2024, voters are facing a paradox of a self-styled “defender of democracy” unable to muster enthusiasm from registered voters in his own party.

Many states allow voters to select a “none of the above” option when casting votes in a primary. In most cases, this option is known as “Uncommitted.” In key states, President Biden has drawn significantly higher “Uncommitted” opposition votes than President Obama did in 2012, the last presidential primary in which a virtually uncontested incumbent Democrat was on the ballot. 

Although primary season is not over, as of this week, 476,199 voters in Democratic primaries throughout the country have voted “Uncommitted” or an analogous category. By contrast, the total number of “Uncommitted” voters in every Democratic primary in 2012 stood at 434,204. 

Who these uncommitted voters vote for in the presidential election in November is the billion dollar question. But they could determine the outcome of the election.

While it’s impossible to pinpoint what these voters want in a candidate, and how many of them will turn to a third-party option, what’s clear is that many uncommitted voters share their dislike for Biden. 

On a state-by-state basis, the number of voters unwilling to commit to Biden is stark. In 2012, 20,833 voters in Michigan voted “Uncommitted” while in 2024, this figure was 101,436. With 99% of all votes counted, the “Uninstructed” vote (Wisconsin’s name for Uncommitted) for Biden stood at ⁦47,846 votes⁩ compared to Obama’s 5,385 votes. Analyzing this result, NPR’s Padmananda Rama and Chuck Quirmbach wrote that the margin of “Uninstructed” votes in Wisconsin was “about equal to Biden’s margin of victory over former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin four years ago. Polls indicate another close race between the two men this year.” 

With independent candidate Kennedy in the mix, 2024’s “Uncommitted” Democratic primary voters could play a significant role in the general election if they decide to vote against their party or withhold their vote. 

Across the board, Biden has received significantly more opposition from the “Uncommitted” vote than Obama did. Even in states like New York where an “Uncommitted” opinion is not on the ballot, Democrat activists organized a campaign to withhold their vote for Biden, as reported by The New York Times. 

The ‘Saving Democracy’ narrative

While talk of “saving democracy” is the Biden campaign’s central narrative, the president’s allies have failed to define what democracy is. Many people conflate the concept of suffrage (one’s ability to cast a vote) with democracy, but it’s more than that.

A democracy thrives when its people have freedom of speech, when they can question political authority and hold the ruling elite to account. Here the Biden administration has a poor track record, as Kennedy has pointed out on numerous occasions. No other election in modern American history has been defined by an incumbent president named as a defendant in a major legal action in which he is accused of using his powers to apply direct pressures on big tech companies to censor and suppress lawful speech. 

But this is the exact position in which President Biden finds himself as the Supreme Court prepares to issue a ruling in the Murthy v. Missouri case, formerly known as Missouri v. Biden, as reported in The Kennedy Beacon. By this standard, Biden has failed to uphold a vital element of democracy, a point Kennedy makes, as reported by The Kennedy Beacon’s Louis Conte. 

For a man casting himself as the “savior of democracy,” Biden finds it difficult to inspire support for his record. A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 74% of Americans feel that the economy is either “poor” or merely “fair” under Biden. A similar poll published in The Wall Street Journal found that 69% of Americans reject the premise that the economy has improved over the previous two years. Polling data on approval for Biden’s border policy is also strongly unfavorable for the incumbent, according to six polls analyzed by RealClearPolling. A Harvard-Harris poll concluded last month found that 64% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border crisis. 

Although many of the prominent drives encouraging Democrats to vote “Uncommitted” have been organized by citizens who oppose Biden’s foreign policy, polling numbers on key domestic issues are equally bad for the incumbent. Obama faced criticism in 2012 from some Democrats dissatisfied with a lack of Wall Street reform and his failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. But such criticism did not rise to the level of a massive uncommitted voting block, as Biden now faces. 

The Biden administration and the president’s reelection campaign want Americans to believe that Trump is a “danger to democracy” and Kennedy is a “spoiler.” A more accurate assessment is that the incumbent president threatens our sacred democratic free speech – and his lackluster presidency is spoiling the hope of the Democratic Party to galvanize its base.