President Joe Biden has earned more than enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination for president—but the grassroots “uncommitted” campaign against Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has also earned enough votes to have a presence at the Democratic National Convention this summer, with at least 25 delegates so far.

More than 30 states have held Democratic primary elections so far and more than 500,000 voters across the country selected “uncommitted” on their ballots, many to signal discontent with Biden’s Israel policy in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas. According to the DNC’s own rules, any candidate who receives at least 15 percent of the vote in any single congressional district is eligible for a delegate. As of now, “uncommitted” has earned delegates in Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Hawai’i, and Missouri. And more could be coming as “uncommitted” is currently organizing voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin for Tuesday and in Pennsylvania for April 23.

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Biden has safely secured 2,597 pledged delegates, more than the 1,968 needed. And it’s a common occurrence in most Democratic primaries for dozens of uncommitted delegates to head to the convention—there were also 56 uncommitted delegates at the DNC in 2016. But this year, “uncommitted” will represent something entirely different: voters who are willing to withhold their vote from the president because of his unequivocal support for Israel despite the deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians.

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Given that this campaign sprang up relatively late in the primary—in Michigan, “uncommitted” was created only about three weeks before the state’s primary and with a mere $200,000—even the activists behind it have been surprised by its success. More than 100,000 voters selected “uncommitted” in Michigan’s primary—about 13 percent of the state’s electorate and 10 times more than what organizers had publicly projected.

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Michigan is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of Arab and Muslim Americans, many of whom immigrated to the U.S. from Palestine. Many still have family and friends living there, making the current war a deeply personal matter. “Life seems heavily veiled in a haze of shared grief, fear, helplessness and even guilt,” wrote Abdullah H. Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, in a New York Times op-ed, “as we try to understand how our tax dollars could be used by those we elected to slaughter our relatives overseas.”

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Hammoud is one of the faces of the “uncommitted” campaign, and is urging people to use the power of their vote to register their dissatisfaction with the president’s Israel policy. Biden has thus far continued to sign off on military aid for Israel, even as Democratic senators have insisted it should be contingent on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu changing his tactics to limit the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and despite evidence suggesting the war in Gaza has been “this century’s most destructive.” One of the central points of concern for activists: Biden has refused to call for a cease-fire.

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At a time when only 36 percent of Americans approve of Israeli military action in Gaza—a drop from 50 percent back in November—these delegates represent a growing discontent that has clearly rattled the Biden campaign, which has taken steps to limit events the president attends in an effort to avoid pro-Palestinian protests. When interrupted by one such protest at a recent campaign event, Biden said: “They have a point.”

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While the “uncommitted” campaign was created as an avenue for voters to register their dissatisfaction with Biden at the ballot box, it’s also getting a presence at the Democratic Party’s largest nationally televised meeting. States that earned “uncommitted” delegates are already preparing for the DNC, deciding who will represent them while navigating their respective state’s party rules.

Back in 2016 when Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran for president, he earned 1,831 delegates, 389 shy of Hillary Clinton, and the DNC turned into a massive protest movement against the Democratic Party establishment. While the uncommitted campaign hasn’t come close to that scale of support, it will be interesting to see what the delegates do at the national convention in August.

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• Democrats
• Israel
• Joe Biden
• Palestine
• 2024 Campaign