In a split from its national counterpart, the Massachusetts Uncommitted movement is recommending a third-party vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, rejecting both major party candidates’ positions on Israel’s war in Gaza.
“We, the leadership of the Massachusetts Uncommitted, like millions of people across the country, pledge to vote third-party unless Biden and Harris implement an immediate arms embargo against Israel,” leaders of the organization said in a statement posted online Monday. “Given the choice between genocide and fascism, we choose neither. We are not alone.”
The statement did not urge support for a specific third-party candidate. In interviews with the Globe this fall, many young voters who identified the Gaza conflict their top issue said they planned to back either the Green Party or the Socialist ticket.
The Uncommitted Movement sprang up out of Democratic opposition to President Biden’s position on the conflict in the Middle East, and its organizers have been agitating — without success — for Biden and Harris to support an arms embargo against Israel.
The statement Monday sets Massachusetts’ wing of the movement apart from the national group, which in September sent a more muddled message on the election. It declined to endorse Harris, while also rejecting Trump and discouraging voters from supporting third-party candidates. The move underscored the difficulty of translating activism and energy into a clear electoral strategy in the general election.
During this year’s Democratic primaries, the Uncommitted Movement organized notable protest votes that helped reveal the scope of the opposition to Biden’s stance on Israel. In the crucial swing state of Michigan, for example, more than 100,000 people rejected him by voting “uncommitted.”
In Massachusetts, more than 60,000 people — 9 percent of the Democratic primary electorate — voted “no preference” in a rebuke to Biden’s policies.
Organizers wrote in their statement Monday that they hope Harris will reconsider her stance on the conflict in the final hours before Election Day. Harris has put minimal distance between herself and Biden on the issue; she has called for a cease-fire in the region while saying she believes US support for Israel should continue.
“There’s still time for Harris to pivot and endorse an arms embargo. The move could mobilize supporters, while the narrow window would also likely spare the risk of substantial backlash which would harm her chances,” the statement read.
In reliably blue Massachusetts, third-party votes are unlikely to threaten Harris’s dominance in Tuesday’s presidential election; she is all but guaranteed to win the state. Still, organizers wrote, their movement is “here for the long haul” and “democracy does not begin and end with elections between Democrats and Republican.”
“We must devote ourselves to a long-term project that builds power in our communities and workplaces, laying the groundwork for an independent, working-class political party,” the statement said. “It’s time to build the future we wish to live.”
Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.