Biden faces protest vote as Haley challenges Trump

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily won presidential primaries in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Delaware Tuesday night.

But two persistent problems continue to hobble the two candidates in their 2024 rematch.

Despite dropping out nearly a month ago, former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley continues to pull roughly 10%-15% of the vote in GOP state primaries against Trump.

And while Biden no longer faces any credible challenger after clinching the Democratic nomination, the “uncommitted” protest vote has haunted the president since Michigan’s Democratic primary when 101,000 snubbed the president and voted “uncommitted.”

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Arab, Muslim, young, and progressive voters incensed by the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas have launched several protest vote campaigns that have spread across the U.S. The coalition of Democratic voters has called for Biden to endorse a permanent ceasefire in the conflict.

The continued protest vote effort against Biden comes after at least seven aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes Monday while delivering food in Gaza. The deaths of the aid workers resulted in fierce backlash, with Biden calling for an investigation into the attack and calling for its findings to be made public in a statement on Tuesday night.

In the critical battleground state of Wisconsin, organizers encouraged Democrats to vote “uninstructed” during the Tuesday primary. After the Associated Press called the race at 9:13 p.m. Eastern time, Biden won Wisconsin at 87.2% with 44% of the vote counted. Nearly 10% of Democrats voted “uninstructed” in a rebuke of Biden.

The more than 33,550 voters who voted “uninstructed” surpassed the goal of 20,682 ballots organizers had set.

The results were a warning state for Biden who won the state in 2020 by less than 1 percentage point, just under 20,700 votes.

In New York, the Working Families Party urged voters to leave the ballot blank ahead of the primary. Biden won the Empire State by nearly 92% with 48% of the votes counted. The number of blank ballots won’t be announced until two weeks after the primary, according to New York’s Board of Elections.

Although Rhode Island only has four electoral votes, nearly 15% of voters in the Democratic primary chose to cast an “uncommitted” ballot meaning it will likely win between one to two delegates. Meanwhile, Biden won 82.5% with 98% of the votes counted.

Nearly 12% of Connecticut voters cast an “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic primary where Biden won with 84.6% of the vote.

Simultaneously, Haley continues to be a thorn in Trump’s side, as she is still pulling double digits in primaries after dropping out of the race one day after Super Tuesday.

In Wisconsin, Haley won nearly 14% of the vote compared to Trump’s 78.3% with 53% of the votes counted.

Haley’s former presidential run largely lasted due to a coalition of suburban voters, independents, moderates put off by Trump, and Democrats attempting to help sustain her campaign against Trump. If just enough suburban voters or moderate Republicans sit out the race or vote against Trump it could cost him a second presidential race.

The former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. appears headed to win a delegate in Rhode Island, as any candidate who receives over 10% of the vote in the state is awarded delegates. Haley won nearly 11% of the vote in the state with 98% of the votes counted. Trump easily won at 84.4%.

Haley won 14% of the vote in bright blue New York and Trump’s native home place, with 43% of the votes counted. She also won nearly 14% of the vote in Connecticut with 46% of the votes counted.

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Trump spent Tuesday holding rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin, where he slammed Biden over immigration and claimed he would address abortion in a statement next week.

The Biden campaign has sought to make the 2024 election a referendum on Trump’s record, including helping overturn Roe v. Wade, and not on the president’s record in office.

“Donald Trump said that women should be punished for having an abortion, is running on a national ban, and supports cruel state bans like Florida’s,” said spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika in a statement Tuesday. “Trump is ‘proud’ he overturned Roe v. Wade, and he is responsible for every extreme abortion ban, every attack on contraception, and every cruel, dangerous restriction placed on women because of it.”