Jewish Insider Daily Kickoff – August 1, 2019
REACTIONS — Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) tells JI’s Jacob Kornbluh: “The two debates demonstrated the strength of the Democratic Party, in terms of the diversity, the views, experiences and background that the candidates brought to the stage. That is what the American people want to see in this election. They want to know that not only [are] the candidates ready to take on Donald Trump, but that they have strong ideas about how they are going to do so. And I thought the candidates did a great job on demonstrating that — on both nights.”
Soifer on the fact that Israel was not mentioned in the debates: “The candidates were speaking to issues that are the top priority of not only American voters, but also Jewish Americans. We know — based on polling — that Jews are voting primarily on domestic policy issues. Those issues were addressed. Israel is very important to Jewish voters, but it is not a key issue that Jews are voting on. They are confident in where the Democratic candidates stand on this issue.”