NORTHAMPTON — A campaign aimed at appealing for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war by expressing displeasure with President Joe Biden and other elected leaders for their handling of the Middle East conflict seems to have resonated with voters in most Hampshire County communities who voted “no preference” in the Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday.

Aside from voters deciding the presidential nominees for the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties, GOP voters in the Hampshire, Frankilin and Worcester Senate district appeared to have ousted the incumbent state committeeman, Northampton doctor Jay Fleitman, vice chairman of the Mass GOP, and his wife, incumbent state committeewoman Mary Lou Stuart, replacing them with Christopher Ryan of Amherst and Sue O’Sullivan of Royalston.

In an otherwise sleepy Super Tuesday in Massachusetts, the Vote No Preference MA organizers in the Democratic primary seem to have struck a chord statewide. The organization said Wednesday that about 55,000 votes went for no preference, exceeding an internal goal of 10,000 votes for the campaign.  Its leaders specifically cited the campaign’s success in Northampton, as well as Somerville, Cambridge, Everett, Medford, and Malden, and even Boston, where 14% selected no preference.

Biden still cruised to an easy win in the Democratic primary in Massachusetts.

Biden secured 4,193 of the 5,247 votes cast in Northampton, but another 823 people, or more than 15% of the Democratic electorate, voted for no preference.

A similar phenomenon took place in Amherst, where 11.6% of the 3,316 Democratic voters chose no preference, though those 385 votes were well short of the 2,698 cast for Biden.

In South Hadley, too, Biden got 1,929 votes from the 2,428 Democratic ballots, but 263 people, or 11%, voted for no preference. In Holyoke, 327 of the 2,812 Democratic voters, or 12%, voted no preference, though Biden got 2,129 votes.

The campaign, which includes support from Smith Students for Justice in Palestine, is demanding that Biden call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, an end to funding what it terms a genocide, a release of all hostages and political prisoners, and unrestricted humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, as well as fully funding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which delivers humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

“We won’t be placated by words that aren’t backed by changes in policy,” Sana Fadel, organizer with the Vote No Preference campaign, said in a statement. “Our movement is asking for an end to the war to allow diplomacy to achieve security and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians. We believe Israel’s safety and security is intrinsically tied to the freedom and self-determination of Palestinians. One cannot be free and safe without the other.”

Lara Jirmanus, a member of Healthcare Workers for Palestine and part of a coordinating committee that organized a recent national open letter to Biden demanding a cease-fire, signed by 4,000 U.S. professors, described the votes as a “wake-up call.” “We’ve been in the streets for weeks, calling our reps and senators every day, and they’ve been ignoring us. This is a wake-up call that the people don’t want to be complicit in genocide,” Jirmanus said.

The use of no preference was a sharp contrast from four years ago, when few voters used that option in what was a competitive Democratic primary that included Biden and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as front runners.

Russell Freedman of Lanesborough, who coordinated the no preference action in western Massachusetts, said organizers are pleased that more than 50,000 voters participated in what was essentially a protest vote that could ultimately save lives.

“It was very much an hoc, last minute thing,” Freedman said. Much of the energy for it came out of Boston, but some organization in getting the message to voters was also done in Northampton.

Support for the no preference option also was seen in other communities, with 11% voting for it in Hadley, or 91 of 808 voters, with Biden getting 679 votes; 12% in Shutesbury, or 50 of 402 voters, with Biden getting 327 votes; 13% in Leverett, or 49 of 378 voters, with Biden getting 299 votes; 10.5% in Williambsurg, or 54 of 511 voters, with Biden getting 425 votes; and 12% in Chesterfield, or 17 of 140 voters, with Biden getting 106 votes.

While former President Donald Trump won the state Republican primary, Nikki Haley won both Northampton and Amherst, as well as Chesterfield, Sunderland, Leverett and Shutesbury.

But South Hadley and Williamsburg were both in Trump’s win column.

Incumbents Fleitman, Stuart off GOP state committee

The GOP state committeeman and state committeewoman voting results for the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester Senate district saw Fleitman and Stuart, who described themselves as bridge builders, likely losing to Ryan and O’Sullivan, who campaigned together and had a website called rinocutters, an apparent reference to removing those from power who they consider to be “Republicans in name only.”

The positions, one man and one woman, work to promote the aims of the party, to coordinate with the national party committee, and to organize and work for the nomination and election of party candidates.

With results from 16 of the 25 communities in the district, O’Sullivan was leading Stuart with 62% of the vote, 3,729 to 2,314, while Ryan was leading Fleitman with 65% of the vote, 4,030 to 2,206.

Early on Wednesday, Fleitman said he had already lost Amherst and Deerfield, and that the margin in Northampton, where he and Stuart both won, wouldn’t be enough to overcome another community, Winchendon, a New Hampshire border town, where significantly more Republican voters participate and Ryan won decisively.

Aside from Northampton, where Fleitman prevailed 510-348, his only other win was Hatfield, 154-139. Stuart fared a little better, taking Northampton 571-250 and Hatfield 154-139, and also earning wins in Amherst, Hadley and Sunderland and deadlocking in Deerfield.

“I thought we should have won (Deerfield),” Fleitman said.

O’Sullivan’s website states that the state committee is broken and mentions it being “full of life long politicians who only have one goal: keep all the power to themselves. They don’t want ‘We The People’ involved.”

“I want to give the political power back to the people,” O’Sullivan wrote.

What the changes in the composition for the state committee means for the state Republican Party is uncertain. Its chairwoman, Amy Carnevale, was elected last year to succeed former chairman Jim Lyons.

The Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh tweeted Wednesday: “Word from the camp of MassGOP chair Amy Carnevale is that her supporters appear to have won enough Republican State Committee seats to thwart an attempted party takeover by the Jim Lyons/Geoff Diehl/Rick Green forces.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.