A Saturday rally drew around 2,000 people calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, gathering at one point on Massachusetts Avenue at MIT. (Photo: Cambridge Police Department via social media)

Pro-Palestine activists chipped away at President Joe Biden’s landslide victory in the state’s Democratic primary on Super Tuesday, while Henrietta Davis and Justin Klekota were among State Democratic Committee winners with comfortable margins in Cambridge and Somerville.

Activists across the nation have waged a campaign to get progressives to vote “no preference” in Democratic primaries as an objection to Biden’s support of Israeli actions in retaliating against Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Among Cambridge’s Democratic voters, there were 2,397 voting “no preference” Tuesday in unofficial results tallied by the Election Commission, or 16.7 percent of voters. In 2020, those votes accounted for just 35 people, or 0.08 percent of voters.

In Somerville, 22.7 percent of voters in this year’s primary voted “no preference,” the city’s Election Commission said in unofficial results. In the 2020 Democratic primary it was a choice of 0.2 percent of voters.

Republican Nikki Haley suspended her campaign for president on Wednesday, but members of her party in Cambridge and Somerville preferred her to Donald Trump. She took 69 percent and 54 percent of the vote in the cities, respectively, but was trounced easily by Trump in statewide results: Trump won 60 percent of Massachusetts Republican votes to Haley’s 37 percent. 

Voter turnout for Cambridge was around 20.4 percent, with 14,282 people casting ballots for any presidential candidate out of 69,849 voters registered at the time of the municipal elections.

Turnout was higher in Somerville: 26.2 percent, with 14,259 voters cast ballots from among 54,410 registered voters.

Voter pushback to Biden was lower across the state than in Cambridge and Somerville, with just 9.3 percent of voters choosing to remain uncommitted; four years ago, it was 0.4 percent.

“The election results speak for themselves,” said Kevin Foster, an activist with Somerville for Palestine. “It’s a really dynamic moment and we’re all really kind of figuring out what to do next. I think there will be more of what we’re seeing now – localized disruptions for not only Joe Biden, but Kamala Harris and senators and representatives throughout the Democratic Party. And I don’t see that disappearing or deescalating until the situation changes in Gaza.”

It could make a difference at the polls in November when the Democrats run against Trump, Foster said, “So I’m not really sure what the electoral path is going forward.”

Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had to “finish the problem” in its war against Hamas. He spoke on Fox News.

“What matters here is to get a cease-fire in Gaza for the Palestinian people, for them to feel like the world is listening to them,” said Mia Haddad, an organizer with Somerville for Palestine. “And I think that we have proved that today, that all of Massachusetts is saying ‘no’ to genocide; and I think that was our success.”

Davis, a former Cambridge city councillor and mayor, ran against Danielle Allen for the Middlesex and Suffolk Senate District; Klekota kept his seat in the 2nd Middlesex District against Rand Wilson.

“I look forward to working with [Davis],” Allen said Wednesday. “I’m proud of the race we ran and of our showing across Cambridge, Everett, Charlestown and Chelsea.”

Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Through the campaign we raised some important issues concerning the governance of the party, the need for more organizing around our key issues and the concept of reining in the corrosive influence of dark money in our state primaries,” Wilson said via social media after his loss. “For that alone, I’m really glad I ran.”

Klekota said online that “the 2024 election will be a rematch between President Joe Biden and a criminally indicted Donald Trump. It is clear the vast majority of progressives do not prefer a return to a Maga Republican administration. The Democratic Party has consistently beat the polls, winning one special election after another, and is energized to win in 2024.”