More than 250,000 Democrats voted 'uncommitted' Super Tuesday. Will the trend continue in Washington’s primary?

Ballots are still being counted for many Super Tuesday races, but we already know that the movement encouraging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in presidential primaries notched several symbolic milestones.

Voters upset with President Biden’s handling of Israel and the war in Gaza have been organizing in states that offer the uncommitted option, aiming to send a message to the White House.

More than 250,000 people across seven states – North Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee and Iowa — voted uncommitted or “no preference” Tuesday.

They join more than 100,000 uncommitted voters in Michigan, many of them Muslim Americans. Now, the presidential primary season rolls on to March 12 contests, including here in Washington state.

Sabrene Odeh, one of the organizers behind "Uncommitted WA," is a Palestinian American who has been active in demonstrations calling attention to what's happening in Gaza.

Odeh says she's pleased with what she saw on Super Tuesday.

"I think this is really a testament to kind of the thing of that we hear in protests," she said. "The sentiment is there that the world is really standing with the Palestinian people."

While the drive to get people to vote "uncommitted" in the primary is a relatively new effort, Odeh says that she's seen a lot of people coming together for the common cause.

"I think it's actually been much easier for folks to get behind something like the uncommitted delegates campaign, because there's no ambiguity with it," Odeh explained.

The "uncommitted" movement both in Washington state and nationwide likely won't be enough to knock President Biden out of being the Democrat nominee in November's election, but that hasn't prevented criticism of the effort.

Critics have posited that if enough uncommitted voters stay home in November, or vote third party, that it could be enough to sabotage President Biden's chances in swing states like Michigan.

Odeh says that she will think about that after March 12.

"I just think that it's never the wrong choice to re-center and call on our elected officials to represent us," she explained. "I don't know what that looks like in November, to be quite frank with you."

You can listen to Soundside's entire conversation with Uncommitted WA organizer Sabrene Odeh by clicking the play icon at the top of the story.

Editor's note: KUOW's Chief Digital Officer Rami Al-Kabra is also the elected deputy mayor of Bothell and a spokesperson for the "uncommitted” campaign. His work at KUOW is not related to his work as an elected official and he has no involvement in KUOW's news gathering.