Michigan’s self-professed defenders of democracy are disenfranchising millions of Democratic voters because they don’t think President Joe Biden can beat former President Donald Trump in November.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel have consistently cast themselves as defenders of democracy while campaigning against Trump, and all three enthusiastically backed Biden’s decision on Sunday to anoint Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement in the 2024 presidential election.

Two days later, Michigan’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention followed their lead, with the overwhelming majority of those who attended a Tuesday conference call backing Harris on the behalf of local voters.

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“Our party and our delegation are built on values of hard work, community, and building a brighter future — and that is exactly what Kamala Harris represents,” Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, told The Detroit News. “She has been a tireless fighter for reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and growing the middle class.”

Delegates told the news site 98% of participants on Tuesday’s call indicated support for Harris as the party’s nominee, though it’s unclear how many of state’s roughly 140 Democratic delegates weighed in.

Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch, chairman of the 13^th Congressional District Democratic Party, described the support for Harris as an “intense majority.” Harris must secure about 2,000 delegates nationwide to cinch the party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August.

“We now have the wind at our back,” Kinloch told The News.

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Kinloch defended his party’s attempt to lock in Harris as the nominee before the convention, suggesting the first black vice president could push voter turnout in Detroit “back into those Obama numbers,” Bridge Michigan reports.

“We don’t need to get (in) the way of ourselves by trying to litigate and have a long, drawn out floor battle” at the Democratic convention, Kinloch said. “That further delays us from being able to, you know, begin to focus on what we need to focus on, and that is stopping Donald Trump from being elected in November.”

An Associated Press survey published on Tuesday claims 3,180 Democratic delegates across the country have vowed to back Harris, while only 44, including three in Michigan, remain undecided.

Just over 81% of Democratic voters cast ballots for Biden during Michigan’s Democratic primary in February, and another 5.67% voted for someone else. Another 13.19%, or 101,623, voted “uncommitted” to register their frustrations with the Biden administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel, according to data from the Secretary of State.

The Uncommitted movement headed Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, along with an associated “Abandon Biden” campaign, has since amassed more than 500,000 voters nationwide who have vowed to withhold their support for Biden unless the president calls for a permanent ceasefire and halts all military aid to Israel.

In Michigan, the Uncommitted folks are represented by Democratic delegates Abbas Alawieh of Dearborn and Rima Mohammad of Ann Arbor, and both voted against endorsing Harris on Tuesday. Alawieh told The News he attempted to discuss the concerns about war on Tuesday, but was shouted down by another delegate that called him an “asshole.”

“It was an incredibly hurtful experience,” he said. “… It was mortifying in front of every elected official who was on the call.”

The demands from uncommitted Democrats now transfer to Harris, or whoever secures the Democratic nomination, and Barnes is now working to connect uncommitted delegates with Harris to talk it out, Alawieh told The News.

“This is important so that we can mobilize the base here in Michigan,” Alawieh said. “We want the vice president to engage with us on a very serious matter and in the Democratic Party there should be space for us to speak up on this very important issue of Gaza.”

“I am very curious to hear how Vice President Harris would differentiate her own Gaza policy from President Biden,” Alawieh told Mother Jones last week. “[I] hope that she differentiates her policy quickly and articulates a more humane approach that allows for us to, hopefully, save lives, and re-engage voters who feel deeply betrayed.”

As Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere work to shift votes for Biden to Harris, Trump’s campaign is questioning the legality of the party’s efforts to shift the president’s $91.5 million campaign warchest to another candidate.

In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington described the funding transfer as “little more than a thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another,” CNN reports.

“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” according to the complaint.