With the Democratic Party descending on Chicago on Monday for a convention with a level of energy few imagined just over four weeks ago when President Joe Biden’s candidacy was causing division within the party, one issue — the war in Gaza — still threatens to disrupt the display of full harmony.

What You Need To Know

  • With the Democratic party descending on Chicago on Monday for a convention with a level of energy few imagined just over four weeks ago when President Joe Biden’s candidacy was causing division within the party, one issue — the war in Gaza — still threatens to disrupt the display of full harmony
  • Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket following Biden’s exit from the race brought fresh questions about the role the war could play in November
  • Halah Ahmad, the spokesperson for the Uncommitted National Movement’s Wisconsin-based group, which helped lead in the charge for the “uninstructed” vote in the state’s Democratic primary acknowledged a slight difference in discourse from the vice president, but said as things stand now, some of the nearly 50,000 who participated in the primary protest vote will not vote for Harris unless she changes course; Biden won Wisconsin in 2020 by only about 20,000 votes 
  • The dissatisfaction among such groups is on full display in Chicago this week, where thousands of protestors are set to take to the streets around the convention 

Biden’s support of Israel amid the war has led to riffs within the party, protests that roiled college campuses and tens of thousands of voters to write-in words such as “uncommitted” or “uninstructed” instead of the cast a ballot for the president in Democratic primaries across the country, including in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket following Biden’s exit from the race brought fresh questions about the role the war could play in November. Days after Biden stepped down and endorsed Harris, Halah Ahmad, the spokesperson for the Uncommitted National Movement’s Wisconsin-based group, which helped lead in the charge for the “uninstructed” vote in the state’s Democratic primary this spring told Spectrum News that Harris has “signaled she may leverage more consequences” and they were “eager” to see how she moved forward. 

But now four weeks into her campaign, while acknowledging a slight difference in discourse from the vice president, Ahmad said as things stand now, the group still considers Harris part of the status quo.

“People continue to be alienated by a lack of action on the part of the current administration, which, you know, Vice President Harris is a part of, whether or not she's the top decision maker,” Ahmad said in an interview. 

Similarly, Danaka Katovich, the national co-director of Codepink, which says it advocates for issues and not particular candidates, said that while there has been “points of optimism” with the vice president – specifically pointing to her call for an “immediate cease-fire” during a speech in Alabama in March – there have been no concrete changes. 

“She has made no tangible promises to be better on this issue,” Katovich said. “So I think until that happens, we kind of view her in the same light.” 

Katovich specifically noted Harris’ second response to protestors who interrupted her rally in Detroit a week and a half ago in which the vice president told them to keep going “If you want Donald Trump to win.”

“Otherwise, I’m speaking,” the vice president continued. 

“To receive this sort of contentment and vitriol in response to us expressing our concerns when it's their job to listen to us, is sort of appalling, and I was disgusted,” Katovich said.  “It's her job to earn our votes, and it’s her job to listen to us in her role as vice president.” 

The dissatisfaction among such groups is on full display in Chicago this week, where thousands of protestors, including Ahmad and Katovich, who both said their groups are traveling to the city, are set to take to the streets around the convention. 

It is also possible some uncommitted delegates could cause disruptions inside the arena where the convention is being held. 

Ahmad said that aside from preparing to demonstrate on the Chicago streets, the uncommitted movement has been engaged in outreach to try to get certain language about a cease-fire and the future of U.S. military aid to Israel in the party’s platform set to be adopted this week. 

The nearly 100-page party platform document, which was written while Biden was still in the race, released on Sunday calls Israel’s right to defend itself “ironclad.” It also supports the cease-fire deal the Biden administration is currently scrambling to shore up but does not go further or mention weapons sales to Israel. 

Among the top demands of Ahmad’s group is an unconditional and permanent cease-fire and an arms embargo on Israel. 

Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement said Harris, while in Michigan for her rally earlier this month, expressed openness to meeting to discuss an arms embargo but a national security aide to the vice president, Phil Gordon, quickly shut down the idea that she supports such a policy. 

Without concrete actions, Ahmed said those involved in her cause in Wisconsin — a state Biden won in 2020 by about 20,000 votes and one in which nearly 50,000 people voted “uninstructed” in the primary in April — will look for other options besides Harris in November. 

“For a lot of people, unless the administration as a whole that Vice President Harris is a part of – and she can set her own policy platform and differentiate from existing policy – unless that changes, voters will be stuck between the choice of bombs or bans, as some people have said, and they don't want to make that choice,” she said. “That's not a choice anyone should have to make and they won't be making that choice. They will opt for other options, whatever that may be.” 

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.