A new poll of American Jewish voters suggests that many in the non-Orthodox Jewish community are finally waking up to the dangers the left poses to the safety, security, and future of the American Jewish community. The poll found that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, holds a narrow lead with Jewish voters over her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, in the 2024 Presidential election. The poll found that American Jewish voters prefer Harris over Trump by 53 percent to 46 percent, respectively. This gap suggests a change in support for Democratic Presidential nominees among non-Orthodox Jews.
Jewish voters have reliably supported Democrats and liberals for some time. Historically, American Jews have supported the Democratic Presidential nominee over the Republican nominee on average by a significant margin of 71 percent to 26 percent since 1968. Most recently, Jewish voters supported Biden over Trump 68 percent to 30 percent in 2020. In 2016, 71 percent of Jewish voters supported Hillary Clinton and only 24 percent supported Trump. It turns out that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was the last Republican to receive at least 40 percent of the Jewish vote back in 1956. While the Jewish community still favors a Democrat this November, there is quite a bit of time until election day. Harris has not proven herself to be a great friend of the Jewish community or Israel. Even if Jews still support Harris more than Trump, the support for Trump and the GOP more generally suggests that Jews may finally be breaking away from their tradition of dominantly supporting the Democratic Party.
Why is this change happening now? Richard Baris, who conducted the recent poll, suggested that the softening of support for Democrats among Jewish voters could be a direct result of the dissatisfaction over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Algemeiner reported that “Jewish voters could be upset with what he described as the Biden administration’s ‘anti-Israel policies,’ potentially sparking a partial exodus among this voting bloc to the Republican Party.” The Biden administration’s troubling and inconsistent position toward Israel, and Harris’ even less supportive views, could certainly play a significant role in turning Jews away from the Democratic Party. This dynamic was evident in the primaries, with a significant level of Jewish engagement in toppling ultra-progressive Jamaal Bowman from his seat in Congress outside of New York City.
However, Jews are not united in their stance toward Israel. What may also be happening is that large numbers of Jews may be turning away from progressive Democrats, like Kamala Harris, because progressive social policies are repugnant to them and they realize how dangerous they are for American prosperity and true diversity.
My recent analysis of the Jewish community’s political preferences found that the non-Orthodox community is not focused on economic matters, which is a marked difference from earlier elections. Rather, American Jews are more generally motivated by cultural concerns and social policy, and the views of politicians like Harris are turning Jews off in significant numbers.
Harris’s political persona revolves around identity politics and the cancerous policy goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—a movement that promotes segregation based on immutable characteristics, as opposed basing policy on the American values of opportunity, merit, and equality. The Jewish community—which has thrived on its grit and hard work on a fair playing field—is understandably worried about DEI and the fracture that it has caused. DEI has infected so many facets of the world, from corporate boardrooms, to public agencies and governments, to the mass media, and even the sports industry.
Former DEI collegiate administrator Tabia Lee succinctly captures the fear of Jews concerning DEI by noting that “DEI is built on the unshakable belief that the world is divided into two groups of people: the oppressors and the oppressed.” In the DEI world of Kamala Harris, Jews are branded as oppressors and Israel is considered a “genocidal, settler, colonialist state.” This way of thinking, Lee says, means that “criticizing Israel and the Jewish people is not only acceptable but praiseworthy” and “if you defend them, you’re actively abetting racist oppression.”
While certainly present in 2020, the truth about DEI has been exposed for the world to see in 2024. With protests and violence against Jews mounting nationwide on college campuses, American Jews vividly saw the toxic DEI apparatus in action. Perverse and incorrect ideas were being espoused by students about Israel and Jews, and the dangers of DEI offices and supporters who were actively promoting more division and harm toward the Jewish community were impossible to overlook. These are the views of Kamala Harris, and while Jews may not love and unreservedly support Donald Trump, so many cannot accept the Harris DEI agenda as the nation heads into the November election.
The post American Jews May Be Moving Right appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.