'Listen to Michigan' activist details movement's plans for November's election
Lexis Zeidan, a leader of the 'Listen to Michigan' and 'Uncommitted' vote campaigns told Fox News Digital that the group has no plans of supporting President Biden without concrete changes in U.S. foreign policy.
DEARBORN, Mich. — President Biden is in danger of becoming a one-term "example" for other Democrats, according to a leader of the movement to desert the incumbent president at the polls due to his handling of the conflict in the Middle East.
"Biden is the example," Lexis Zeidan, one of the lead organizers and the spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, told Fox News Digital. "Telling the Democratic Party, putting them on notice that even for down ballot elections, for those congresspeople that are not pro-Palestinian and calling for ceasefires, their positions are at stake."
The comments come as Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, has become a key center of resistance to Biden’s bid for re-election. During last month’s Michigan primary, more than 100,000 voters marked "uncommitted" on their ballots instead of supporting Biden as the Democratic nominee, a number Zeidan said far exceeded her organization’s expectations.
"We went into the primaries expecting or aiming to get 10,000 uncommitted votes, which was Trump's margin of victory in 2016," Zeidan said. "And we ended up with over 101,000 uncommitted votes, where we also landed two delegates in district 12, in district six who will be headed to the national convention."
BIDEN CAMPAIGN: WE DON'T WANT THE VOTES OF 'DEATH TO AMERICA' PROTESTERS IN MICHIGAN
Lexis Zeidan, spokesperson for the Listen to Michigan group, speaks during a press conference held by the campaign one day after the Michigan presidential primary in Dearborn, Michigan, on Feb. 28, 2024. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Biden campaign did not reply to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
The resistance to Biden’s re-election stems mainly from the president’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, a response to the Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish State by Hamas, a terrorist group that enjoys financial and material support from Iran.
However, many activists in Dearborn, a city with the highest per capita Muslim population in the country, have been vocal opponents of Israeli tactics since the beginning of the war.
Zeidan, who is now serving as the spokesperson for the national "Uncommitted Movement," also pins a lot of the blame for those tactics on Biden, arguing that the president has been allowed to "take our tax dollars to fund a genocide."
"For too long you've had people being presented with the option of the lesser of two evils. I think what you're seeing is a wave of young voters and diverse groups of voters and anti-war voters that are saying 'we're no longer settling for this option[.]'"
The Michigan-based activist argued that Biden had the "power to pick up the phone at the very onset" of Israel’s campaign to "ensure that there was a permanent ceasefire to save lives on both sides."
"Instead, he continued to provide munitions and aid to a very right-wing fascist government that was literally committing war crimes," Zeidan said.
Zeidan said that the movement is spreading from Dearborn to other key swing states such as Wisconsin, battlegrounds that promise to have an outsized role in determining the fate of this year’s election.
Lexis Zeidan discusses her group, Listen to Michigan, and their push to convince Democrats to vote "uncommitted" in Democratic presidential primaries as a rebuke to President Biden on his foreign policy towards Israel. (Mike Lee/Fox News Digital)
Those involved in the movement know that success could ultimately lead to a victory for former President Trump, an outcome Zeidan said will not stop her activism.
"For too long you've had people being presented with the option of the lesser of two evils," Zeidan said. "I think what you're seeing is a wave of young voters and diverse groups of voters and anti-war voters that are saying ‘we're no longer settling for this option, the lesser of two evils, and that we are going to be courageous, and we're going to be brave, and we're going to tell you that you cannot weaponize fear against our belief that we deserve to live in a world where every single person gets to experience self-determination and freedom.’"
Lexis Zeidan, right, is active in a national effort to get Democrats to vote "uncommitted" in presidential primaries as a rebuke to President Biden. (Getty Images)
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Zeidan said that message is especially aimed at the Democratic Party, which she said she believes will not be able to win elections simply by claiming to be better than the alternative.
"We no longer are going to spend time, money, effort, organizing behind elected officials or presidents who don’t believe in this anti-war, pro-peace, pro-Palestinian view," Zeidan said.
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