The Jewish vote remained firmly with Obama in this election, with early exit polls showing 69 per cent of the Jewish electorate voting Democrat, 30 per cent voting Republican, and one per cent for other candidates.

Polls suggested that Jewish voters made up two per cent of the national electorate. National Jewish Democratic Council head David A. Harris said: “We now know that the Jewish community today was once again solidly behind President Barack Obama, and that the only so-called ‘Jewish problem’ he has is that there aren’t more Jewish voters in America.”

Jewish candidates however, did not fare so well. Republican Congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was defeated in the race for New Jersey's 9th Congressional District. An Orthodox rabbi, and author of books including Kosher Sex and Kosher Jesus, Rabbi Boteach ran on a platform of small government and job creation. He was beaten by Roman Catholic Democratic candidate Bill Pascrell, who was re-elected for the fifth time.

Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel, who was running for Senator of Ohio, also failed to unseat the Democratic incumbent. His strongly conservative views, including opposing gay marriage and gay members of the military, not only performed poorly with the Ohio electorate, but with his own family.

Members of Mr Mandel’s extended family wrote a letter to a local paper on Monday expressing their dismay at his views on rights for homosexuals, and said his stance: “violates… core values of our family.”