The Uncommitted National Movement, which convinced more than 700,000 Democratic primary voters to cast a ballot for “uncommitted” due to President Joe Biden’s support for Israel, refused to endorse his successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Thursday for similar reasons.
The campaign movement voiced its frustrations with the Democratic presidential nominee after she rebuffed their request to discuss halting U.S. arms shipments to Israel, a move which her national-security adviser says she remains opposed.
“Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” the Uncommitted Movement said in a statement provided to multiple news outlets.
The announcement comes on the same day as Harris’s visit to Michigan, where the pro-Palestinian Uncommitted Movement was launched in March. The vice president is set to appear at a campaign event with talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in a suburb near Detroit, marking her third trip to Michigan since replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
The Uncommitted Movement also expressed outrage after its request to feature a Palestinian-American speaker at last month’s Democratic National Convention was denied. Instead, the event spotlighted the parents of Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was found in a Gaza tunnel on August 31.
Thirty uncommitted delegates staged a sit-in protest outside the convention’s venue shortly after the Goldberg-Polin family spoke, re-upping their request for a Palestinian speaker to take the stage. Their demand was ultimately ignored by DNC organizers.
In addition to discussing an arms embargo on Israel, the movement asked Harris to meet with Palestinian-American families whose relatives have died in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The group asked for a response by September 15.
While withholding its support from Harris, the Uncommitted Movement said former president Donald Trump would only “accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing” should he be reelected.
“We must block Donald Trump, which is why we urge Uncommitted voters to vote against him and avoid third-party candidates that could inadvertently boost his chances, as Trump openly boasts that third parties will help his candidacy,” the group added.
Harris has lost additional endorsements from key players, like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On Wednesday, the labor union declined to endorse a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since 1996.
While withholding its support from Harris, Teamsters did not endorse Trump either, despite recent polling data showing 58 percent of the union’s members favoring Trump. Only 31 percent supported Harris.
Breaking away from the wider union, local Teamsters unions in Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Nevada, and Hawaii threw their support behind Harris.