WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Nearly a third of U.S. voters who cast their ballots for former president Joe Biden in 2020 decided against voting for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential elections because Biden supported Israel’s war on Gaza, a new poll has shown.
The poll, conducted by the Institute of Middle East Understanding and YouGov, attempts to provide a possible answer to the question of why Harris received six million fewer votes than Biden received in 2020.
The survey, which was released last week, found that 29 percent of Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 and didn’t vote for Harris in 2024 cited “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” as their reason for withholding their vote.
“Vice President Harris lost votes because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” IMEU said in a statement announcing the poll.
That reason surpassed the economy, immigration, healthcare, and abortion, all of which have historically been major voter issues in past presidential elections. Foreign policy is often a low factor in voter turnout.
Harris became the Democratic nominee last July after Biden dropped out of the race following a dismal performance in the first debate against Donald Trump.
While many Democratic voters were hopeful that Harris would break from Biden’s unconditional and unrelenting support for the Zionist regime’s war on Gaza, Harris made no effort to create any distance between her and her predecessor on the issue.
At the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, when Harris was to be officially nominated as the Democratic nominee for president, the DNC was met with major pro-Palestinian protests outside the convention hall.
Inside the convention, DNC delegates aligned with the Uncommitted Movement called on convention leaders to allow a Palestinian speaker to speak on the main stage. The request was unequivocally denied.
While Harris offered a softer tone and evoked empathy with the Palestinians killed and under constant Israeli bombardment, she and those around her continuously reiterated support for the Zionist regime’s genocidal campaign.
The IMEU and YouGov poll surveyed 604 voters between 20 December 2024 and 7 January 2025.
In the 2024 presidential election, Harris received 75 million votes compared to Trump’s 77 million votes.