USA
Sweeping majority of American Jews favour Harris over Trump, new survey finds
Nearly three quarters of Jewish voters favour Kamala Harris in a direct matchup with Donald Trump, according to JDCA poll
September 9, 2024 17:28
Nearly three quarters of Jewish voters favour Kamala Harris in a direct matchup with Donald Trump, according to JDCA poll
September 9, 2024 17:28American Jewish voters favour Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president by a wide margin, according to the findings of the first national poll of Jewish voters by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
The survey released on Monday found that 72 per cent of American Jews support a Harris presidency in a direct matchup against Trump, which shows an improvement upon Joe Biden’s 67 to 26 per cent margin against Trump that was reported in April.
The results of the recent poll show that Trump and the Republican party are unpopular with Jewish voters; over three quarters said they view Trump unfavourably, and 80 per cent said they disagreed with Trump’s statement that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion…and should be ashamed of themselves.” Of those who disagree with the statement, 84 per cent believe it to be antisemitic.
The poll also revealed that a significant majority of Jewish voters (91 per cent) are highly concerned about antisemitism in the US, and Harris has a 37-point advantage over Trump when it comes to voters’ confidence in how the candidate will deal with the issue.
When it comes to Israel, 75 per cent of Jewish voters indicated that they feel “emotionally attached” to the Jewish State, even though the issue of Israel ranked 9th out of 11th in terms of its importance in deciding their upcoming vote.
This poll from the Jewish Democratic Council of America is, surprise surprise, pro-Kamala Harris!
— Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) September 9, 2024
There's just a few problems... a 🧵 https://t.co/8zVSMYFrib
A vast majority (87 per cent) support Biden and Harris’s efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal, but 40 per cent noted that the Democratic administration’s Israel-Palestine policies will not impact how they will vote. This is compared to 36 per cent who say the policies make them more likely to vote for Harris, and 24 per cent who say the policies make them less likely to support Harris.
The survey was conducted between 27 August and 1 September and included interviews with 800 self-identified American Jews.
The polling results come just days after Trump told a group of Jewish Republicans that if Harris wins the election in November, “Israel is gone.”
“If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that. If they win, Israel is gone,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday. “You can forget about Israel, that’s what’s going to happen. So they have to get out on 5 November and they have to vote for Trump. If they don’t, I think it’s going to be a very terrible situation.”
The former president has previously said Jewish Democrats “hate Israel” and should “have their head examined.”
The Harris campaign responded to these comments, according to Politico, saying that Trump has “made it obvious he would turn on Israel in a moment if it suited his personal interests,” and “he has done so in the past.”