Jewish Republicans, Dems clash over Florida

Jewish Republicans are clashing with Jewish Democrats over the vote in Flordia, a particularly high-value state with a significant Jewish footprint.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which seeks to re-elect President Donald Trump and Republicans down-ballot, is reaching out to Jewish voters in “Florida, Florida, Florida,” the organization’s executive director, Matt Brooks, told JNS.

Meanwhile, thee Jewish Democratic Council of America “has significantly expanded its operations and efforts in recent months,” the organization’s executive director, Halie Soifer, said.

The Sunshine State is home to an estimated 650,000 Jews. Trump won Florida in 2016 by a margin of only 112,911 votes.

While RJC’s “significant focus” is on the presidential race, the organization has also been “involved in independent expenditures to help several [House of Representatives] and Senate candidates who we’re supporting,” said Brooks. Overall, the RJC has endorsed 70 candidates, including Trump.

The RJC Victory Fund, the super PAC of the Republican Jewish Coalition, released an ad last week featuring a man acting as a salesman warning about “the radical left” having “lots of influence” on “raising taxes, defunding police, pressuring Israel and more” if the ticket of former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris wins.

The salesman actor in the “special offer” ad — in a style that goes along the lines of “buy one, get one free” — states that those policies are part of “the deal of the century: elect one old liberal, get fresh, even more liberal, ideas free. This deal, like their policies, is [obscentity] insane.”

The ad ends with the salesman actor throwing away money as the words “Electing Joe Biden and the radical left: Insane!” flash across the screen.

On the other side of the aisle, Jewish Democratic groups are seeking to push Biden and Harris over the finish line, especially with virtually all polls, including in swing states, showing Biden ahead of Trump, in addition to the group campaigning for Democrats down-ballot.

“We have more than tripled the size of our staff. We have established 14 chapters in swing states,” Soifer said. “And we have multiple events every night to get out the vote across the country.”

The chapter leaders and volunteers have been “phone-banking and text-banking hundreds of thousands of Jewish voters.”

Along with endorsing Biden, JDCA has endorsed almost 120 House and Senate candidates.

JDCA has released a powerful video ads featuring — one featuring the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish in response to Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and another comparing Trump’s America to Nazi Germany.

The political action committee of Democratic Majority for Israel, DMFI PAC, is currently airing an ad in Florida that features background audio of Biden emphasizing his commitment to enhancing the US-Israel relationship, along with quotes from US and Israeli officials praising Biden for his stances on the alliance, DMFI told JNS.

The ad is running on digital and streaming platforms, and will air in other battleground states, she said.

The organization is running “an extensive paid and organic social-media campaign, communicating information about Biden and other Democratic candidates,” said the group.

The political action committee of J Street, JStreetPAC, is supporting only Democratic candidates, including Biden, along with, as J Street told JNS, “helping to elect a pro-Israel, pro-peace majority in the Senate” and “defend” the more than 30 “House freshmen endorsees whom we helped elect in 2018.”

“During the unbelievably high stakes of this election, J Street is also focused on defending our democracy and the integrity of our electoral process. In the face of extremely dangerous comments and threats from President Trump, we joined with over two-dozen Jewish organizations to speak out against the rise of far-right extremism and white supremacy,” said the group.

Bipartisan Jewish and pro-Israel groups have also made moves in the final stretch of the election cycle, though the following groups are not endorsing a presidential candidate.

•NORPAC has hosted at least 40 events this year, with congressional candidates on both sides of the aisle, doing two or three events weekly (now all virtual) in which those with candidates count as endorsements, the group’s national president, Ben Chouake, told JNS.

•Pro-Israel America has similarly not endorsed or campaigned for a presidential candidate. Still, it made nearly 80 endorsements of both Democratic and Republican House and Senate candidates, and has raised more than $3 million for them. The endorsements are of “pro-Israel congressional candidates [from] both sides of the aisle who have proven track records” as it pertains to the US-Israel relationship through their words and actions,” its executive director, Jeff Mendelsohn, told JNS.

Although Biden is expected to win the Jewish vote, Jewish Republicans, including the RJC, expect Trump to receive an increase in the Jewish vote and even win the largest percentage of the Jewish vote for any GOP presidential candidate to date.