New Analysis Shows Jewish Voters as Democratic Now as Ever
Listed in: Israel, Other Domestic Policy, Other Foreign Policy, NJDC News, Press Releases
Harris: “Now we have analyzed the data in the most Jewish congressional district in the country, and we see some solid proof: American Jewish voters remain as Democratic as ever, when we compare the numbers to previous elections.”
WASHINGTON, DC – A new white paper issued today by The Solomon Project, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to educating the American Jewish community about its rich history of civic involvement, offers detailed information about the Jewish voter turnout in the recent special election in Florida 19, the country’s most heavily Jewish district. Despite recent claims that Jewish voters are trending away from the Democratic Party, the paper notes, “There does not seem to be any meaningful decline in Jewish voting for the Democratic congressional candidate (Deutch) in April 2010 among Jewish voters — as compared to the Democratic percentage of the vote for president or congress in 2008.”
National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) President David A. Harris issued the following statement in response to the results:
Every election cycle we hear again and again from Republican Jews and others that the sky is falling, and Jews are finally trending Republican—and yet it never happens. In the current climate of a strongly pro-Israel Democratic president who has had a public disagreement with Israel, the chorus of claims that Jews will desert the Democratic Party has grown louder—including earlier this week, on the eve of the special congressional election in Florida.
Now we have analyzed the data in the most Jewish congressional district in the country, and we see some solid proof: American Jewish voters remain as Democratic as ever, when we compare the numbers to previous elections. The Republican in this race attacked Ted Deutch on health care reform, and Ted Deutch did not criticize President Obama when it comes to Israel. Yet according to this non-partisan study, not only did Congressman-elect Deutch finish just several points behind the overwhelming support figures for President Obama and seven-term-incumbent Rep. Robert Wexler, Deutch actually appeared to run best in the most Jewish precincts in his district—demonstrating yet again how American Jews are remaining solidly Democratic.
Conservative analyst Michael Barone said it best when he examined this race and predicted, “There’s likely to be very little falloff in Democratic percentages among Jewish voters.” We couldn’t agree more, and now we have hard data to support what we’ve know and observed, election cycle after election cycle.
