A recent poll by the Jewish Voters Resource Center found that 67% of American Jewish voters plan to support a Democrat in the midterm elections this year, with 26% stating they plan to vote for a Republican.
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that is in line with historic trends of Jewish voters: since the 1930s, about two-thirds of American Jews have sided with Democrats in national elections.
In the United States and in Maryland, a deep blue state that hasn’t voted for a Republican nominee for president since 1988, most Jewish voters will likely side with the left, said Baltimore Jewish Council Executive Director Howard Libit.
“In much of Maryland, the Democratic primary decided many of the more competitive races,” he said. “Many of the districts in the Baltimore region are heavily weighted toward Democratic voters, so I don’t think we’ll see super competitive races in many areas … there are certainly a number of Republican-focused voters among the Jewish community, but from our perception, nationally, more of the Jewish community tends to still vote for Democrats.”
JTA notes the Jewish Voters Resource Center is led by prominent Jewish Democrats. Even with that in mind, Libit said local Jews voting for the right is more an anomaly than the standard.
“There have been exceptions at times. I think Gov. Hogan enjoyed great support within the Jewish community when he won for governor twice as a moderate Republican, but I think he’s more an exception as a unifying candidate than more common,” Libit said.
In Pikesville, resident Shoshana Guttman said she will be voting with the Republican candidates this fall. She added, however, she doesn’t know how many of her peers will vote because they prefer not to talk about politics.
“Sometimes it’s better that way,” she said.
Guttman added she always votes Republican, and said she hasn’t moved farther right or left over the last few years — she’s as steadily red as usual.
Shalom Addi, also in Pikesville, said he’ll be voting with the Republicans, too. However, he added he’s moved farther right over the last few years, in part due to what he called corruption among local Democratic leaders, many of whom he believes to be Marxists.
According to the Jewish Voters Resource Center poll, the issues most Jewish Americans are placing front and center when they decide how to cast their vote are the same issues other Americans are focused on: cost of living and affordability. While 89% of respondents are concerned about antisemitism in the country, it didn’t beat out the two aforementioned categories.
“I thought that was a good reminder that the concerns of the Jewish community in America are concerns that most of our fellow citizens, whatever their faith is, share. If the top concerns of the general non-Jewish public are the economy and affordability and things like gas prices, I think many of us in the Jewish community share those,” Libit said. “Clearly, how candidates feel about Israel, how candidates feel about antisemitism, is important to Jewish voters. But I think it’s probably got to be the extreme cases that will drive a large number of Jewish voters to vote [based] on that.”
Libit said he doesn’t think there has been much of a shift in historical trends of Jewish political support because both parties have a problem with antisemitism. He said you can’t zero in on one party as particularly anti-Jewish because both parties are afflicted with the issue.
“There’s traditionally just been a large segment of the Jewish community that votes Democrat,” he said. “It’s been consistent for years, and as much turmoil as we’re in now, it doesn’t feel like there’s been a seismic shift within Jewish voters, based on the many conversations that I have.”
While 75% of respondents to the poll disapprove of the job that President Donald Trump has done, Libit said the dissatisfaction extends beyond the president to the government more broadly. In the same way Libit said both parties have a problem with antisemitism, he said there seems to be a problem with both parties’ perception among the voting public in general.
“I think there’s energy for national change here. We’re going to see change just due to term limits of leadership of some of our counties and things like that. So there’s some change, but I think there’s appetite for broader national change,” he said.
aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com
