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The RJC’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas is exclusively for current members of the RJC National Leadership. Leadership opportunities start at $1,000. More membership details are available here.

TheJerusalem Post reports:

The Republican party increased its share of the national Jewish vote to a new high not seen in a generation, according to results of a midterm election exit poll conducted Tuesday by Fox News.

According to the data, 33% of Jewish voters polled voted Republican in the 2022 midterm election, up from 30% in 2020 and 24% in 2016.

…Republican Jewish Coalition national [political] director Sam Markstein told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that more Jewish voters are moving toward the GOP because "candidates are offering concrete solutions to the issues that matter to Jewish voters."

Markstein noted that those issues include: "reducing the skyrocketing costs of living, combating rising hate crime, championing school choice, putting America first on the world stage again by supporting our allies in Israel, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism."

…Markstein said Tuesday's election saw "a record-smashing level of support in Florida, at 45% of the Jewish vote."

Haaretz, in an article about a skewed J Street poll that purports to show that Republicans got only 25% of the Jewish vote this year, quoted RJC national political director Sam Markstein pushing back on that low number:

“The gold standard has always been the network exit polls – that has always been the accepted number, and RJC stands by the Fox News exit polling, which shows a consistent trend of Jewish voters moving towards the GOP,” Republican Jewish Coalition National Political Director Sam Markstein said, referring to a poll that found a 65-33 Democrat-Republican split.

“J Street doesn’t like the poll, so they shopped around and paid for a poll they do like. The trends are absolutely clear: Jewish voters are moving towards the GOP – 24 percent in 2016, 30 percent in 2020, 33 percent in 2022 – and no J Street paid-for poll will change those facts,” Markstein added.

Those Fox News exit poll numbers are truly historic. The Republican Party increased its share of the national Jewish vote to a percent not seen in a generation. In just the last three cycles, the GOP portion of the Jewish vote moved from 24% in 2016, to 30% in 2020, to 33% in 2022. And we saw a record-smashing level of support in the key state of Florida: 43% in 2020 and 45% in 2022.

Let's also remember that in New York, Republican Lee Zeldin got closer to winning the gubernatorial race than any GOP candidate since George Pataki won in 2002. New York also saw some notable GOP wins in House races and races for state assembly, including Mike Lawler's win in NY-17, where he unseated Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Sean Patrick Maloney – the first DCCC chair to lose re-election in over 40 years.

RJC Political Director Sam Markstein was featured on the Jerusalem Post podcast this week, giving his analysis of the election results. You can listen in here. (Sam's segment begins at the 13:05 mark.)

This is it! Which party will hold the majority in the US Senate next year depends on the runoff race in Georgia.

Politico reports:

Neither Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) nor Republican Herschel Walker cleared 50 percent during Tuesday’s election, forcing a sprint to a head-to-head matchup on Dec. 6 between the two candidates.

…The logistics of the 2022 runoff will look different than 2021, after the Republican-controlled Georgia legislature passed a law last year that significantly changed the rules. Most notably, legislators shortened the runoff period from nine weeks to four weeks. The new law also restricted early voting during the runoff and essentially eliminated the ability to register new voters during that period, which Democrats had used to great effect in 2021.

RJC intends to see this fight through to the finish! Warnock remains uniquely vulnerable as an extreme liberal in a state where 82 percent voters say they’re moderate or conservative. RJC has been working hard to educate voters about Warnock’s extreme record on matters of concern to the Jewish community – and we’re doubling down on our voter outreach for the run-off!

Watch this space for updates – and please help by sending your donation directly to Herschel Walker through his personal page in the RJC PAC conduit portal.

The RJC made significant investments in the midterm election cycle to help Republicans win majorities in the House and Senate. One element was our aggressive get out the vote efforts in key battleground states; another was the RJC Victory Fund’s record-breaking ad buys in Pennsylvania.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Jewish groups, such as the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), are also spending heavily in this cycle, including on TV ads in key battleground states, get-out-the-vote efforts, phone-banking and door-knocking.

…RJC national political director Sam Markstein, said early on, the RJC invested heavily “to build out the most sophisticated, cutting-edge data operation in Jewish politics.”

“The RJC Victory Team and volunteers from across the country have spent months relentlessly executing a targeted, data-driven campaign to identify, persuade and turn out Jewish voters in support of GOP candidates in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Florida,” he said.

“Importantly, in these last critical hours before the polls close on November 8th, we can effectively track which Jewish voters in our targeted outreach campaign have not yet voted and hyper-focus our grassroots efforts specifically to ensure they do vote on Election Day,” Markstein said. “We know that in close races, the Jewish vote could very well make the decisive difference. The stakes in this election couldn’t be higher, as Americans are fed up with the disastrous Biden-Schumer-Pelosi agenda, and the RJC will be working tirelessly until the polls close on Tuesday night to help secure Republican victories.”

Early November includes several notable anniversaries and observances that deserve acknowledgement here.

Last night, 84 years ago (November 9-10, 1938), was Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” On that night, violent anti-Jewish pogroms took pace across Germany, Austria, and German-occupied territories in Czechoslovakia. It marked a turning point in Nazi Germany’s policy and a warning to Jews of the persecution and genocide to come.

On this date in 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed UNGA resolution 3379, the infamous resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution undermined Israel’s right to exist. It was revoked in 1991 after significant efforts by the US.

Earlier this week saw Victims of Communism Day, observed on November 7, the date of the October Revolution in Russia in 1914 that led to the birth of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, and the other totalitarian regimes it created and supported (including the Soviet bloc states, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia), caused the deaths of close to 100 million people.

And perhaps in answer to all of those dates when persecution is remembered, we encourage our members to observe Veterans Day tomorrow, November 11. The men and women of the US military, past and present, have defended our homeland, kept us free, and brought relief to persecuted people around the globe. We thank them for their service.

For the amazing story of a Jewish WWI hero, General Milton J. Foreman, see this article from 2021 at Fox News.

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