The “Uncommitted” Movement announced Thursday that it would not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for president. 

“Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” Uncommitted said in a statement released alongside a Thursday morning press conference.

Uncommitted leaders and other observers were initially optimistic that Harris’s nomination would lead to a policy shift toward Israel and Gaza, even if they were sober about Harris’s strong pro-Israel record. As Harris cemented Democratic support behind her nomination, her campaign picked up its efforts to conduct outreach to Arab and Muslim voters.

After President Joe Biden withdrew as the Democratic nominee, Harris’s aides were wary of the public criticism that the administration had neglected Arab and Muslim constituents by sending billions of dollars of weapons to Israel. 

Uncommitted delegates and their supporters hoped that Harris would shift away from Biden’s unconditional support for Israel’s military. They also hoped that her willingness to call for a ceasefire before Biden and criticism of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant she would take a harder stance against Israel’s human rights abuses. 

The Uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Committee withheld their support for Harris at last month’s convention in Chicago to pressure her to commit to immediately stop sending weapons to Israel and secure a permanent ceasefire. Communication between Uncommitted and the Harris campaign became further strained after the DNC refused Uncommitted’s request to host a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage at the convention. 

“For months, we have urged Vice President Harris to shift her Gaza policy so we could mobilize voters in key states to save lives and our democracy.”

Uncommitted delegates held a sit-in outside the main convention hall and said they would give Harris until September 16 to meet with them in Michigan. The deadline passed earlier this week. 

Uncommitted said that while the group would not endorse Harris, it continues to oppose a Donald Trump presidency and is not recommending a third-party vote in the presidential election for fear that it could inadvertently boost Trump’s advantage in the Electoral College. The group urged uncommitted voters to cast anti-Trump votes up and down the ballot. 

“For months, we have urged Vice President Harris to shift her Gaza policy so we could mobilize voters in key states to save lives and our democracy,” the group said in the Thursday morning statement. “The DNC and the Vice President’s campaign fumbled even a small gesture to unite our party ahead of November by rejecting the simple request for a Palestinian American speaker.”

Harris’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tenor of Harris’s public remarks denouncing the killing of civilians in Palestine was one of the things that gave some Democrats hope that she might change course on Israel and Gaza.

In July, NBC reported that the White House had toned down Harris’s criticism of Israel in a planned speech given in March, but during her nomination acceptance speech last month, Harris reiterated that she would always support Israel’s right to defend itself. While she acknowledged the destruction of Gaza, she used the passive voice to describe it.

The decision by Uncommitted not to back Harris may not hamper her chances at winning the White House in November, but it bodes poorly for the progress Democrats had aspired to make in engaging disenchanted voters — not just their Arab and Muslim constituents. At least 740,000 people voted “uncommitted” in Democratic primaries earlier this year.

Shortly after Biden stepped down, Uncommitted voters who spoke to The Intercept said that no matter who the Democratic nominee was, they would withhold their votes unless the candidate makes significant policy changes to stop the killing of civilians in Gaza. 

Shaneez Hamed, an uncommitted voter in California who previously said policy change in Gaza was a red line to secure his vote, told The Intercept on Wednesday that he was not planning to vote for Harris in November. 

“She is not going to support an arms embargo against Israel,” Hamed wrote in an email. “She repeated the same old talking points about Israel/Hamas with no real change in policy. And this is all in addition to the happy parade her campaign has been doing for getting the endorsement of a war criminal such as Dick Cheney. So no, I will not be voting for Harris in November unless she changes her foreign policy. I’m tired of paying taxes for ‘the most lethal army in the world’ to go and bomb poor people of the global south.”

Another uncommitted voter who spoke to The Intercept in July said on Wednesday that he was planning to vote for Jill Stein.

“As of now, Harris has not earned my vote, no,” said Washington, D.C., voter Will Dawson. “I held out early on in the hopes that she’d appeal to the demands of the Democratic Party of whom the overwhelming majority have called for an immediate ceasefire with threat of full arms embargo/boycott if not met. And she has doubled down, saying there is nothing whatsoever the Israeli colony could do that would cease America’s support.”

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