Voters at a polling station in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Jan. 23. Photo by Gaelen Morse/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 25, 2024
President Joe Biden was not on New Hampshire’s Democratic primary ballot, and neither was the word “ceasefire.” But supporters of both are declaring victory in Tuesday’s contest.
Organizers of a campaign to get voters to write “ceasefire” on the ballot to protest Biden’s support for Israel, which is battling Hamas in Gaza, declared that it had been a “phenomenal success,” garnering 1,500 write-ins on Tuesday.
Biden’s supporters concluded differently.
“This effort appears to have crashed and burned,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
The Concord Monitor reported that “No local polling place recorded more than a handful of ‘ceasefire’ write-ins. The Boston Globe reported that voters seemed unaware of the campaign.
A write-in primary
Biden did not appear on the ballot because the national party made South Carolina the first 2024 primary and said candidates on the ballot in New Hampshire, which formerly enjoyed first-in-the-nation status, can’t compete for delegates at the national convention.
Still, the nearly 80,000 Biden write-ins comprised 64% of the 124,254 Democratic votes cast. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota came in second with about 20% of the write-ins. The 1,500 “ceasefire” write-ins made up a little more than 1%.
Organizers of the “Vote Ceasefire” campaign said the results showed that voters care about stopping Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which according to the enclave’s health ministry has killed more than 25,000 people. A recent Suffolk University poll of 1,000 likely voters in New Hampshire showed that 32% of Democrats want the U.S. to push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which provoked the war on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and kidnapping 240.
“The week-old, grassroots campaign raised awareness of the discontent among Democrats with Biden’s policy in the Middle East,” the organizers said.
Many political pundits assume that Democratic Biden in November will face Republican former President Donald Trump, who won the New Hampshire’s GOP primary with 54% of the vote. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley garnered 43%.
A factor in 2024?
A new survey by the Arab American Institute of 1,000 likely American voters indicated that politicians’ responses to the war could sway some voters in 2024. Another poll, of 1,637 voters commissioned for the Democratic Majority for Israel in December, showed that 68% wouldn’t abandon Biden at the polls because of the way he is handling the war.
At least one pro-Israel group had tried to get New Hampshire election officials to refuse to count “cease fire” write-ins. Mark Mellman, head of Democratic Majority for Israel, sent a letter to New Hampshire’s secretary of state Monday saying that tallying these votes would not be consistent with the state’s election law.
New Hampshire election officials did not respond to an inquiry from the Forward about Mellman’s argument this week.
Post primary, Mellman said the numbers show “virtually no backlash” against the president for his steadfast support for Israel. He added that the turnout for the president showed “a high level of engagement and support” for him among voters.
Vote Ceasefire organizers said media coverage of their campaign reached hundreds of thousands of people, and would inspire others to use the tactic in future primaries.
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