Former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates have the potential to attract a record number of Jewish voters in November’s presidential election, Trump strategists say, and Democratic politicians agree.
Growing Jewish support for the Republican Party is being driven by rising anti-Semitism and voter disgust with the far-left Democratic Party’s hostility toward Israel, the Trump campaign and some politicians have said.
“President Trump has a chance to win the largest percentage of the Jewish vote ever,” Trump campaign pollster John McLaughlin told The Post.
“Anti-Semitism is a real problem.”
Historically, Democrats seeking the White House have received roughly 70% or more of the Jewish vote, while Republicans have received 30% or less.
Former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower performed best among Jewish voters, but each received only about 40 percent of the vote.
McLaughlin predicted that Jewish support for Trump will increase this year in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, and that this increased support will also benefit candidates in lower districts, he said, including in six swing House races in suburban New York, which are home to some of the largest Jewish neighborhoods in the country.
In 2020, President Biden defeated President Trump in these states by margins of less than 3 percentage points, so even a slight change in the vote count could affect the Electoral College.
Jewish voters perceive some Democrats as soft on attacking Israel, said Lee Zeldin, a former Long Island congressman and 2022 Republican candidate for New York governor, who is Jewish.
“There’s a lot of vague language and ambiguous statements about Israel within the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is allowing pro-Hamas forces to grow in power,” said Zeldin, the Trump surrogate.
The anger of Jewish voters and activists has already played a decisive role in Democratic primaries in recent months, helping to oust anti-Israel New York “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the 16th Congressional District, which includes leafy Westchester and parts of the Bronx, and last week helping to oust fellow left-leaning Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri.
A recent poll conducted for the Teach Coalition found that rising anti-Semitism and the escalating war between Israel and Hamas have increased Jewish voting enthusiasm in six battleground states in Pennsylvania and New York.
The latest Teach Coalition poll found that 43% of Jewish voters in the Keystone State support Trump.
Combined, the six battleground districts in Pennsylvania and New York have more than 300,000 potential Jewish voters. The remaining New York battleground districts are Long Island’s 1st and 4th districts, Westchester and Rockland counties, the Hudson Valley’s 17th, 18th and 19th districts and the Syracuse-area 22nd district.
According to the Teach Coalition poll, Trump won the support of 37% of Jewish voters in those New York neighborhoods, while his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had 61% support.
Still, sources say it’s difficult for Jewish voters to vote, with many ultra-Orthodox voters not agreeing to phone interviews and some seeking guidance from a rabbi before voting.
But lawmakers from both parties predicted that Jewish voters in southern Brooklyn, home to ultra-Orthodox Jews and refugees from the former Soviet Union, would flock to the Republican Party in greater numbers than in the past.
“I believe the Jewish vote will swing to the right in astronomical numbers in this election,” said Republican Inna Bernikov, a Jewish city council member of Ukrainian origin who represents Gravesend, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach and Gerisen Beach.
“It’s clear that there is deep-rooted anti-Semitic corruption within the Democratic Party, and Jewish Democrats feel betrayed and will firmly reject it at the ballot box,” she said.
State Sen. Simcha Felder, a conservative Democrat who represents the largely Orthodox Jewish district of Borough Park and Midwood, said he believes Trump will beat Harris in his district by more than 2-to-1 because of widespread anti-Semitism, the immigration crisis and inflation.
“They’re trying to vent their anger at who’s in power, but it’s the Democrats who are in power,” Felder said of Jewish voters.
“Unbridled anti-Semitism has a very negative impact on Jewish people, but that’s not all. Like any other family, Jewish people with large families feel the effects of inflation when they go to the grocery store,” Felder said.
Jews are uncomfortable with left-wing progressives and protesters, especially the Democratic Socialists of America, who support Hamas terrorists more than Israel in the Gaza war.
“Some of the Democratic Socialists of America’s rhetoric and actions are not only anti-Israel, but anti-Semitic. There are Jewish voters who are concerned about the Democratic Socialists of America,” Litwak said.
The Harris campaign has denied claims that Jewish voters would drift to Trump and the Republican Party.
“There is one candidate in this race who has consistently disparaged American Jews, elevated neo-Nazis and promoted anti-Semitic tropes: Donald Trump,” said Harris campaign spokesman Charles Luttwak.
“And our campaign is uniting voters who reject his hateful rhetoric and defeat him at the polls in November.”
Last week, President Trump said that Jews who don’t vote for him “should get their heads checked.”
