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

By linking progressive politics with nominally Arab American issues, organizers are building winning coalitions 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.