A fractured left finds unity in protesting Democrats’ stance on Palestine by strategically swapping votes to defeat Trump
On the eve of the election, Harris pledged to “do everything in [her] power to end the war in Gaza.” This announcement comes at the eleventh hour of a nail-biting race. Across the United States, people have been intensely dissatisfied and heartbroken over the Biden Administration’s perpetuation of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people by providing virtually endless and unchecked military resources to Israel. Left with only two viable options for Presidential leadership, Americans report feeling conflicted and hopeless about how to hold onto their integrity in this moment. Polls indicate that the Biden Administration’s refusal to implement an arms embargo against Israel is the issue that could cost Harris the election and allow a Trump victory.
With a day to go until the 2024 U.S. General Election voting window closes, Harris and Trump are in a dead heat. A swelling movement is activating a unique demographic of voters who could determine the result: voters who are highly politically engaged but may have been overlooked by mainstream Get Out the Vote efforts.
This key constituency is being mobilized through existing relational networks built over a year of protests over Israel’s violence in Gaza. Centered on trust, community, and shared heartbreak, voters are banding together to defeat Trump while strategically casting protest votes in safe blue states that hold the Democratic party accountable for its participation in genocide. Vote swapping is a legal form of protest with a longstanding history within electoral politics.
Who Are These Voters?
There are a tremendous number of voters across the US who have organized to express their intolerance of the Biden Administration’s actions in supporting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The Uncommitted Movement, an extension of the Listen to Michigan movement which began early this year, encouraged voters to write-in “Uncommitted” during the presidential primary and netted over 700,000 votes across the US with a clear message to the White House: you’ll lose our votes if you keep funding Israel’s war.
Swap Your Vote creates a clear electoral strategy to stop a Trump victory while uplifting opposition to Israel’s protracted violence. This is because presidents can’t end structural militarism or imperialism; movements do that. And while such change doesn’t happen in a single election, this cycle presents an opportunity to prevent a dangerous slide into fascism while still building durable movement power.
Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman, who was not allowed to speak on behalf of the Uncommitted movement at the DNC, announced that she had swapped her vote in conjunction with the publication of her rationale for voting for Harris in Rolling Stone earlier this week. And Lily Greenberg Call, who resigned from the Biden administration over opposition to US support for the bombardment of Gaza, announced her support for this vote swapping effort in a TikTok.
Why defeat Trump?
A Trump victory would not only condemn the U.S. to a political landscape of fascism - U.S. military use against civilian protestors, women's loss of bodily autonomy, and the active disintegration of democracy at large - but it is also an arguably worse outcome for Palestinians themselves. Trump has expressed vocal support for Netanyahu, and during his term, controversially moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, while aggravating tensions in the region by putting his son-in-law Jared Kushner in charge of the region’s peace negotiations. A recent poll found that Netanyahu voters prefer Trump over Harris by a shocking 93-1 ratio.
If elected, Trump’s public position and details of Project 2025 make clear that U.S. Americans would be actively suppressed from expressing political discontent. The move to defeat him is a move to minimize harm to vulnerable populations and to preserve space for activism of any form to continue.
A Heart-Led Movement
Most remarkably, people are overwhelmingly sharing emotional testimonials about their experience connecting with other voters during the vote-swapping process. One Palestinian-American voter in Pennsylvania, for example, shared her text exchange with her match in NYC, Sean. It included:
I was ignoring early vote options since I was undecided, but I can definitely confirm that I will vote Harris/Walz on election day, if not sooner. Will keep you posted. I so appreciate your humanity and action. Thank goodness people like you exist. What a great tool! I can finally put this internal conflict down and use the energy more productively!
Countless other swappers emphasize the meaningful personal connection that this platform makes possible. Swap Your Vote is uniting the left at a time of great fracture. This is more than an electoral strategy: Swap Your Vote is a trust- and heart-centered avenue for people to show solidarity with each other during a time of impossible grief.
Sibel Güner (she/they) is an organizer, facilitator, researcher, and traveler with a background in global movements for social change.
Rae Abileah (she/her) is the co-creator of Swap Your Vote and is a social change strategist, activist, and Jewish faith leader.