With 95 per cent of ballots counted, “uncommitted” received almost 46,000 votes which translates into 19 per cent support for the ceasefire vote.
Biden won the state in 2020, beating Trump by 230,000 votes. The last time the state voted Republican was in Nixon’s 1972 landslide. However, the result will trouble Democratic strategists who fear 2024 will be a knife-edge contest.
The Biden campaign addressed the Minnesota results in a statement: “The president believes making your voice heard and participating in our democracy is fundamental to who we are as Americans.
“He shares the goal for an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace in the Middle East. He’s working tirelessly to that end.”
Minnesota has a large population of Somali-Americans and is represented by radical progressive Ilhan Omar who has repeatedly been accused of antisemitism, a charge she has denied — who said Israel had “hypnotised the world”.
Last week 101,000 Democratic voters in heavily Arab-American Michigan demanded a ceasefire by ticking “uncommitted” on their ballot in the primary. Biden beat Trump by 154,000 votes in 2020 and will almost certainly need most, if not all, of these “uncommitted” votes to commit to him in this must-win state.
Organisers of the Minnesota "uncommitted" movement said turnout exceeded expectations and branded Israel a “genocidal regime”.
"We're doing this so President Biden knows that Democrats have had enough of this endless support for a genocidal regime, “ Asma Mohammed, from Uncommitted Minnesota, said.
"Today we are showing him that Minnesota is on the side of justice and humanity."
President Biden won the Minnesota primary with 170,890 votes.
In North Carolina, Biden received 87 per cent of the primary vote, followed by “no preference” with 12.7 per cent support.
In Massachusetts, the president won 83 per cent of the vote, followed by 9 per cent for “no preference.”
