RJC head: ‘Jewish vote in Florida to be decisive for Trump victory’
Executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America insists Jewish voters trust Biden on all issues, will increase share of Jewish vote in upcoming election
By JEREMY SHARONJewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer and Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks are seen addressing The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference.(photo credit: screenshot)
The Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman famously urged Jews around the US to make the “great schlepp” to Florida to urge their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.Once again, the Sunshine State is balanced on knife edge in the upcoming election, and the Jewish vote could be a tipping point for whichever presidential candidate carries Florida and potentially the entire election. Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference being broadcast online today (Thursday), executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition Matt Brooks predicted that US President Donald Trump would significantly increase his voter share among the Jewish population in Florida, which would propel him to another victory in the state.“I fully concede that the Democrats will get the majority of the Jewish vote, but that’s not what we’re competing for,” said Brooks.“If we’re getting 30% of the Jewish vote nationally I can assure you that in the battleground states like Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania we’re getting higher than that. In the Upper West Side and Upper East Side [of New York City] and in Los Angeles, liberal Jews are pulling the whole average down. But when you poll in battleground states we’re doing significantly higher,” he continued.Brooks pointed to the Florida gubernatorial race in 2018 in which Republican candidate Ron DeSantis beat the Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum by just 40,000 votes, and noted that DeSantis took a historic high of 35% of the Jewish vote in the state.“There is no way he would have won that without that huge increase among Jewish voters, and we will see that again in 2020 with president Trump and Jewish vote will be decisive in him carrying Florida.”Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, rejected these claims however, asserting that polling shows Jewish voters support Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden on all issues, including on Israel.“We know the issues driving the Jewish vote, which are the rising insecurity under this president, whether due to the unprecedented rise of antisemitism, or now our own health insecurity with 200,000 people dead [due to COVID],” said Soifer.“Jews blame Donald Trump and trust Joe Biden.”She argued that Trump’s vulnerability is not increasing with Jewish voters, and predicted that Trump would get an even lower share of the Jewish vote in Florida than the 24% he took in 2016, in part due to the recent death of liberal Jewish US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the ugly fight about to take place over the appointment of her replacement.“Republicans in Florida will get even less of the Jewish vote in 2016 because we in the US have an historic moment in our history, we have lost a supreme court justice, we all mourn the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and now we know just as in 2018, the Supreme Court and who the president appoints will drive Jewish voters to the polls.”
