Tipsheet

Here's the Significant Support Trump Earned From Jewish Voters This Election

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 15, 2024 5:05 PM

Leading up to last week's election, President-elect Donald Trump went through great lengths to earn the vote of demographics that don't normally vote for Republicans. Especially following the Biden-Harris administration's weakness on supporting Israel following a particularly pro-Israel Trump administration, as well as the October 7 attack last year that Hamas perpetrated against our ally in the Middle East, this outreach included Jewish voters.

Last Tuesday night, as results were coming in for the election, it was revealed that the largest share of Jewish voters in decades in Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. While Florida has become increasingly red, as last Tuesday further proved, Arizona and Nevada remain key swing states. Trump won all three of those states as part of his victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, and also won the popular vote. 

As we highlighted in a deep dive VIP last week, even where Trump didn't wrack up wins against Harris in the Electoral College, he still came close or at least performed much better than he had in 2020.  While Harris did win New York, she only won the state by about 11.8 percentage points, which is a far cry from how President Joe Biden won the state by 23 percentage points in 2020. 

New York, like Florida, has a large Jewish population, and that didn't go unnoticed during post-election analysis for the Empire State. Earlier this week, Fox 5 put out an analysis of Trump's victory, with a piece examining "Who voted for President-elect Trump? AP VoteCast shows boost in these demographics."

As that piece mentioned [Emphasis added]:

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Approximately 30% of Jewish voters supported Trump, a figure similar to 2020, despite Biden’s larger share. The shift in support was noted by both Jewish advocacy groups, with some welcoming Trump’s policies on Israel and security, while others voiced concern over his rhetoric.

The New York Post, as the election results ere looking better and better for Trump early on Wednesday morning, also highlighted how "Trump sees 50% boost in New York’s Jewish vote compared to 2020." The Jewish News Syndicate went with a similar headline, "Trump surges among Jewish voters in NY, doubling 2020 support." Last Thursday, Moment detailed how "Exit Polls Hint at Trump Gains with Jewish Voters."

Analysis from NBC News also made note of how Trump's support from Jewish voters may be more than exit polls capture. Writing about Rockland County, New York, which went from Biden +2 in 2020 to Trump +12 in 2024, the analysis mentioned that "given that the Jewish vote is so small and difficult to measure nationally, Rockland’s result raises the possibility that Trump may have had more success with this group than the exit poll captured."

There's plenty of evidence that Trump received more support from Jewish voters than has been put out there beyond what the polls are saying.

But, such support isn't exactly a surprise. On the October 7 anniversary, Trump received the endorsement of former Democratic Rep. Peter Deutsch from Florida's 20th Congressional District. Not long after the anniversary, Rabbi Moshe B. Parnes previewed gains for Trump with Jewish voters as well in his column for Townhall, "Understanding the Dramatic Jewish Shift Towards President Trump and the Republican Party."

Late last month, the Associated Press also put out an article on how "Some Jewish voters in presidential swing states reconsider their longtime devotion to Democrats," which featured undecided voters. Harris was also confronted with undecided Jewish voters raising concerns about the hostages being held by Hamas following that October 7 attack during a CNN town hall event last month. Her responses on Israel were so terrible, especially since she focused on trashing Trump the entire time and never even mentioned her own supposed support for Israel, that even David Axelrod criticized her. 

Meanwhile, Democrats don't appear to be taking it too well that Trump would make such gains. Matthew Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) made sure to set the record straight.