National Uncommitted Movement and Uncommitted Minnesota refuse to endorse Harris-Walz

The national pro-Palestine group instrumental in getting out hundreds of thousands to vote uncommitted in the presidential primary to protest President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza announced Thursday it will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

In Minnesota, where nearly 46,000 Minnesotans voted “uncommitted” in the presidential primary and sent 11 uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention, Uncommitted Minnesota also said it is following the National Uncommitted Movement’s lead and will not endorse the Democratic ticket, which includes Gov. Tim Walz for vice president.

“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have not done the minimum we have asked for to earn our endorsement, which is to commit to an immediate and permanent cease-fire, for one, but two, to back that up by committing to an arms embargo to stop supplying the fire that we want to cease,” said Samuel Doten, a spokesman of the Uncommitted Movement in Minnesota and co-chair of Minnesota’s Uncommitted delegation to the DNC.

The National Uncommitted Movement’s announcement came as Harris was set to travel to Michigan, a battleground state where the movement began. The group said the decision was made after it had asked Harris to meet with Palestinian Americans who have family in Gaza, and to discuss the movement’s demands for an arms embargo and permanent cease-fire in the conflict.

However, it did not get the response it wanted by the Sept. 15 deadline it had set, organizers said. It was another setback it had faced after the DNC denied a Palestinian American from speaking at the convention.

“Harris’ unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy, or to even make a clear statement in support of building existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the national movement, said of Harris.

At the same time, Alawieh urged uncommitted voters to not vote for former President Donald Trump or a third-party candidate, cautioning that support for a third-party candidate could give Trump a boost.

While the national Uncommitted Movement focused its frustration on Harris, Doten said that, back in Minnesota, Walz had missed key opportunities to meet with Palestinian Americans.

Doten cited an incident over the summer when the governor’s office canceled a meeting at the last minute as Palestinian Americans were waiting to meet with Walz after he said it was discovered they wanted to not just talk about their trauma but about policy demands, too.

“Organizers who care about Palestinian lives have been asking for a conversation with Gov. Walz for months and months, and they have not gotten it,” Doten said. “I love that our home state governor is the vice presidential candidate, but here, back at home in Minnesota, he has not done what is necessary to gain the trust and support of this movement.”

The governor’s office could not immediately be reached to comment on the meeting.

But the national movement appeared more optimistic about Walz. After 46,000 Minnesotans voted uncommitted in March before he and Harris had entered the presidential race, Walz had said uncommitted voters were “asking to be heard” and that they should be taken “seriously” and listened to.

Alawieh said he hopes the Harris-Walz ticket will “lean into” the view Walz had in March.

“There are elected leaders from Minnesota who have been very supportive of our efforts, who have been working very closely with Gov. Walz, and I think he sees that there is a real need to speak specifically to uncommitted voters here,” Alawieh said. “Unfortunately, the vice president has not yet, up until this moment, specifically addressed uncommitted voters.”

Following the group’s announcement, the Harris-Walz campaign said the governor met with families of American hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas during a prescheduled event on his visit to Washington, D.C., Thursday. During their meeting, he assured them he and Harris would try to get them released while reaffirming their commitment to Israel’s security.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has worked closely with the Uncommitted Movement, said Thursday she hopes the Harris-Walz campaign will continue to have a dialogue with them.

“My hope still remains that Harris and Walz would take this offer to win their votes,” she said in an interview on Capitol Hill.

Omar also said she plans to continue to support the Harris-Walz ticket regardless of the group’s decision.

A Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson said the vice president remains committed to ending the war in Gaza.

“She will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” a campaign spokesperson said in a prepared statement.