Biden easily wins Washington’s primary despite ‘uncommitted’ push

President Joe Biden easily won Washington’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, the same day he clinched enough delegates to win his party’s nomination for a second term.

Biden claimed 86% of the vote in Tuesday’s count, putting him in position to win all of the state’s delegates. Just less than 8% of Democratic voters cast “uncommitted” ballots. Some Democrats had urged voting uncommitted to protest Biden’s support for Israel amid that nation’s siege of Gaza following the October Hamas attacks. Others in the party have worried about Biden’s electability at age 81.

Despite some misgivings in the party, Biden has easily won every state primary so far, including on Tuesday, when he also claimed Georgia’s and Mississippi’s primaries.

State Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, said he was happy to see strong support for Biden.

“It’s good a lot of people are participating and know what’s at stake,” Riccelli said after seeing the results. “None of those people want to see Donald Trump take office again.”

Biden’s support was steady throughout the state. His lowest percentage was in Whatcom County, home of Bellingham, where he still took 82.7% of the vote. Support for the uncommitted option only topped 10% in King County.

In Spokane County, 86.6% of Democrats counted Tuesday voted for Biden. Uncommitted only was selected by 5.1%.

Biden, the only candidate listed on the Democrats’ ballot who hasn’t dropped out of the race, easily beat his two opponents.

Author Marianne Williamson and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips each collected less than 4% of the votes so far on Tuesday, respectively. Williamson and Phillips still appeared on the ballot despite exiting the race because Washington’s deadline to finalize its primary ballot happened in January before each candidate dropped out.

Democratic candidates who earn at least 15% of the total vote in Washington win a proportional share of the state’s 92 delegates.

The campaign to vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary picked up statewide and national momentum in the new year as the death toll in Gaza surpassed 30,000 late last month, with thousands more people missing, the Associated Press reported. Israel began its siege after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took 240 others hostage on Oct. 7.

The movement for Democrats to vote “uncommitted” began in Michigan, where more than 100,000 voters chose that option, making up 13% of total votes counted. Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary in a landslide, however, picking up more than 80% of the Democratic votes cast.

In Washington, a group of anti-war activists gathered on March 4 outside the downtown Seattle Federal Building, urging Democratic voters to cast “uncommitted” votes on their primary ballots.

But Riccelli said he sees this as a race between Biden or Trump.

“We have what looks to be two options: One is somebody who fueled the fire of insurrection, and even previous to that talked about not respecting a peaceful transition of power,” Riccelli said. “The other option is somebody who is looking at the long-term policy objectives that are needed for our country to be successful, whether that be infrastructure, whether that be addressing some of our challenges with fentanyl and opioid issues. He is trying to ‘re-patriatize’ some of our manufacturing to make sure we can have good, living-wage jobs here in our country.”

After Washington’s primary votes are tallied and certified later this month, the 92 Democratic delegates from the state will represent Washington later this year at the Democratic National Convention. Any delegates assigned as “uncommitted” when the election is certified will have their own choice to decide on a candidate at the national convention.