What was an Abandon Biden movement to protest the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel was relaunched on Thursday as the Abandon Harris campaign.

The focus remains “to ensure a defeat happens, not because we like the despicable candidate who waits in the corridor, but for a punishment to happen,” co-founder Hassan Abdel Salam said at a press conference in front of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, WXYZ reports.

The campaign initially launched in Michigan in October 2023 to demand the Biden-Harris administration call for a ceasefire and end all military aid to Israel, or risk losing Democratic voters in November. During Michigan’s February presidential primary, more than 100,000 Democrats cast “uncommitted” ballots, and the campaign, along with a similar “uncommitted” movement, has since expanded to nine battleground states involving about 700,000 voters.

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“The media took our message, and the (Harris) campaign said no comment, no speaking,” Salam said, referencing a request to speak at the Democratic National Convention that was shut down by party officials.

A poll released this week by the Council on American Islamic Relations found 40% of Michigan’s Muslim-American voters plan to back Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 presidential election, while 18% support Republican former President Donald Trump, 12% plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, and 4% plan to vote for independent candidate Cornel West, Michigan Public Radio Reports.

“Our latest survey reveals that American Muslim voters are highly engaged in the upcoming presidential election, open to supporting a diverse range of candidates and political parties, and deeply dissatisfied with the current state of the nation, particularly U.S. support for the war on Gaza,” Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, said in a statement.

“The poll also shows that an unusually high number of American Muslims planning to vote for third party candidates. With over 2.5 million American Muslim voters eligible to turn out in November, including in key swing states, elected officials and political candidates should engage with their Muslim constituents in the coming weeks,” Awad said.

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The CAIR survey results for Michigan are part of a broader poll of 1,159 Muslim voters conducted Aug. 25-27, after Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention in Chicago. A previous CAIR exit poll from Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary found 94% of Muslims who voted cast uncommitted ballots.

Nationally, the poll found 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Harris, 29.1% plan to vote for Stein, 11.2% for Trump, 4.2% for West, and less than 1% for Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver.

The poll found a sizeable 16.5% are yet undecided, while 8.8% don’t plan to vote.

An Emgage report on Muslim voter turnout in the 2020 election shows that despite the pandemic, 71% of registered Muslim voters, or more than 1 million, cast a ballot that year – up 2% from 2016. The CAIR survey found 69.1% of American Muslims said they generally vote for the Democratic Party, but 59.7% plan to cast their ballots for “other” parties in 2024.

Emgage, which focuses on boosting Muslim voter turnout, contends the registered Muslim voter population in Michigan increased 27% from 2016 to 2020, going from 162,373 voters to 206,050.

Former President Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton with a 155,000 vote margin, while Biden’s margin over Trump in 2020 was 134,188.

In Wayne County, which gained 14,037 Muslim voters between 2016 and 2020, Democratic County Commissioner Jonathon Kinloch told WXYZ he’s “bothered” by the prospect of losing thousands of voters in November.

“I need to make sure we have the right person in the White House to address the needs of our country,” said Kinloch, a Harris supporter. “I as a commissioner have voted to call for a ceasefire. None of us want death and war, and I don’t think Donald Trump is the answer.”

Salam said Thursday the Abandon Harris campaign is now working to decide on a third party candidate to endorse.

“Twenty-first century American history is being written and it begins with November 5^th,” he said.

The Abandon Harris launch comes as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is hosting its annual convention in Dearborn, where Stein gave opening remarks on Thursday, and West is scheduled to speak on Saturday, according to the ADC website.

Other speakers include state and federal lawmakers, rappers, activists, military officials, former Biden-Harris appointees, and leaders in the uncommitted movement. There does not appear to be any current Biden-Harris administration officials scheduled to attend.

“I’m still undecided and unhappy,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News, told the Detroit Free Press. Harris’ “speech during the DNC was not really sufficient for me to make a decision. … She’s not different, she’s part of the administration. She has made it very clear what she will do when she becomes president. … And therefore, right now, Trump is not a choice, neither is Kamala Harris. But there are 60 days from today, and there is plenty of time for them.”