Article

The New York Jewish Week: Jewish Vote ‘Could Be Pivotal’ In Closely Watched Florida Races

November 1, 2018

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That’s the belief of Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, who told The Jewish Week that a poll of Jewish Democrats in early October found that 70 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of anti-Semitism, a figure that she believes has likely increased after the synagogue murders.

“All signs indicate that that number is even higher in the aftermath of this event and a widespread recognition in the Jewish community that Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric — which has emboldened neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites — has contributed to this problem,” she said.

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Ron Klein, chairman of the JDCA, said Trump has made himself an issue in the midterms because he has told Republican rallies, “I’m not on the ticket, but I am on the ticket because this is also a referendum on me.”

“In a close election like this, anything could happen,” Klein said. “We’re talking of a relatively small number of undecideds. … It could be a Jewish vote that is mad about Pittsburgh and the pipe bombs that were sent from here in Florida to [Jewish billionaire George] Soros and others. There is definitely a lot of anxiety in the Jewish community and whether that motivates them to come out and vote, we will see. We think it will.”

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Soifer said the JDCA has endorsed 58 senatorial and congressional candidates in the midterm election but that it is “investing more heavily in Florida than anywhere else in the country. We are buying digital and print ads. We know that people under the age of 65 spend two hours a day on their phones on average, so we are contacting people where they get their information. And we have coupled that with print ads in Jewish newspapers, including election supplements.”

She noted that a national poll of 800 Jewish voters taken earlier this month by the JDCA’s Jewish Electorate Institute found that 74 percent of them were supporting Democratic candidates and that 68 percent of those identify as Democrats. That means that the other 6 percent, Soifer said, are either Republicans or independents “because of the overwhelming rejection of Trump’s policies in the Jewish community.”