Harris, Walz face pressure from left over Israel-Hamas war

Just days after forming their ticket, Vice President Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are already grappling with pressure from members of the pro-Palestinian movement, whose disaffected voters pose a potential threat to the duo in key states that make up the “blue wall.” 

Harris was confronted by protesters twice this past week during rallies in Michigan and Arizona over the country’s handling of the war in Gaza. And though several leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement expressed a hopeful tone about the new ticket after briefly engaging with Harris in Detroit, other groups, like the Abandon Biden Campaign, see little daylight between her and President Biden on the issue.  

The mixed signals from the party’s left flank raise questions over whether Harris will be able to bring those voters back into the fold. 

“It opens the door and creates a possibility,” said James Zogby, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) member and the co-founder of the Arab American Institute, regarding whether the new ticket could draw protest voters back into the fold. 

“We’ll see in the coming weeks,” he added.

That optimistic note was echoed by others, including some who belonged to the movement attempting to pressure Biden by rallying voters to back an “uncommitted” option in this year’s primaries.

“There was quite a shift when Biden dropped out,” Laura Keating, an uncommitted delegate to the DNC from New Jersey, told The Hill. “My phone started beeping off the hook from the Signal app when that came out. There was hope.” 

The Democratic Party rapidly formed a new ticket just weeks after Biden withdrew from the race, with Harris choosing Walz as her running mate this week. Democrats largely cheered the running mate selection, as some members on the left had raised concerns about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is Jewish, and his views on the Israel-Hamas war. 

Harris has called the situation in Gaza “devastating” and has noted that “Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters.” At the same time, her national security adviser Phil Gordon wrote on the social platform X that the vice president does not support an arms embargo, and it remains too early to tell how Harris’s policy will shift, if at all, on the conflict compared to Biden’s. 

“Since October 7, the Vice President has prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza. The Vice President has reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities,” a Harris campaign spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.  

“The Vice President has been clear: she will always work to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” the spokesperson continued.  

“The Vice President is focused on securing the ceasefire and hostage deal currently on the table. As she has said, it is time for this war to end in a way where: Israel is secure, hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.” 

Walz told MPR News after more than 45,000 primary voters cast protest votes against Biden that those voters were “civically engaged” and acknowledged that “these folks are asking for a change in course.” Walz has also said Israel has a right to defend itself, and some pro-Israel groups have backed the Democratic running mate. 

Some members of the pro-Palestinian movement have signaled they see a possible opening to make inroads with the new Democratic ticket on the issue of the war, which was triggered when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.  

The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas has led to the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians, wide-scale destruction in the Gaza Strip and a humanitarian crisis.  

And Biden has faced growing calls to raise pressure on Israel over its role in the death and destruction and hold back supplies of U.S. weapons.

“There is a window for Harris to adopt a stance that turns a page away from Biden’s current policy,” Layla Elabed, one of the leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement, told The Hill. 

Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, briefly engaged with Harris at a photo line while the vice president was in Detroit. They expressed hope about a potential meeting to talk about an arms embargo.  

“We know she doesn’t support an arms embargo because it is not administration policy,” Elabed told The Hill. “That is why it is important for us to meet with her and for her to hear our voices.”

Dearborn, Mich., Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (D), another prominent voice on the matter, similarly suggested that “the door is cracked open, that there’s now opportunity to have dialogue” in a recent interview with PBS News Hour. He said he hoped to see “tough policy” from her in addition to her rhetoric. 

Organizers are also seeing a shift in support from young voters.  

According to Neha Dewan, co-director of South Asians for Harris, her organization’s youth team was having a “difficult time” getting young voters engaged because of apathy tied to the war in Gaza, calling the change “remarkable.”  

That’s changed since Harris took over as nominee.  

“There’s definitely been a shift because the biggest concern brought to us from youth organizers was that they didn’t like [the] Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza,” said Bejay Chakrabarty, a youth organizer with South Asians for Harris. “More people are coming in now.”  

“She’s not a wimp, she’s not a fool. She needs and she has the young people of America. She’s got to keep them, and next time they bomb a hospital, she may lose them if she doesn’t say something,” Keating told The Hill. 

Harris rankled some Democrats when she responded to protesters who interrupted her speech in Detroit by saying, “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” 

But members of the party credited her for the way she approached them in Phoenix, when she said, “We’re here to fight for our democracy, which includes respecting the voices that I think we are hearing from” and noted “the president and I are working around the clock every day to get that cease-fire deal done and bring the hostages home. 

“I appreciate the VP learning the lesson of Wednesday in Michigan and giving the *right* response in Arizona tonight, to pro-Palestine protesters. (Now she just has to make it happen and stop selling arms!),” wrote former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan on X.

But other members of the pro-Palestinian movement believe little has changed between the two campaigns.  

“We consider her part and parcel of the administration,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC and the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “We consider the policies of unequivocal diplomatic and political and military and financial support for Israel to be the policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

Abudayyeh said there wasn’t going to be a “change” in how they were going to proceed ahead of the Democratic National Committee.  

“We’re going to mobilize those tens of thousands for the protest on the DNC,” he said. 

When Walz was chosen as Harris’s running mate, the Abandon Biden Campaign also cautioned “against falling for bare minimum platitudes.” The group, too, criticized Harris for the way she handled the protesters in Detroit. 

“I think the chances of compromise with a Biden-Harris ticket are the same as they are with a Harris-Walz ticket,” said Hudhayfah Ahmad, a spokesperson and head of media for the Abandon Biden Campaign, who noted the campaign who would be using “Abandon Harris” phrasing. “People are just under the assumption it’ll be easier under Harris-Walz with no evidence whatsoever.”

With less than 100 days until the November election and just weeks until the convention in Chicago, where multiple groups are expected to protest, the Harris-Walz ticket has a short runway to turn things around with disaffected Democrats.  

That’s particularly true in states like Michigan, home to large Arab and Muslim American communities, who cast a not-insignificant portion of votes against Biden. The mood at Democrats’ convention could offer some of the first clues on whether protest voters might warm up to the new ticket. 

“Everybody says there’s just three months. That’s a hell of a long time,” said Zogby.

“We’ll see what they do. But there is the possibility here of making real signs of change.”

Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D), who is Palestinian and has met with Harris about the war in Gaza, suggested that “there was a lot of cautious optimism” when Harris became the nominee but that “a lot of that optimism was eroded” when she confronted protesters at the Detroit rally. After Harris’s approach to protesters in Arizona, she said she “was glad to see the immediate adjustment.” 

“In that moment, I think there was an opportunity to show empathy and talk instead of saying you want Trump to win,” Romman said about the Detroit rally. 

“We have a historic candidate who is clearly listening,” she said of Harris in Arizona. “This immediate adjustment shows she is receptive to feedback. But the reality is we cannot fully bask in this historic moment.” 

Laura Kelly and Yash Roy contributed.