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RJC Ad Gets Huge Response

"Deli Talk," the Republican Jewish Coalition's "closing argument" ad, for the 2024 election cycle, has been seen millions of times on major networks like Fox News and CNN, as well as on social media. The ad has generated strong reactions from viewers and continues to get significant media attention.

 

The New York Times featured "Deli Talk" in an a report on election ad campaigns:

The Republican Jewish Coalition has gone all-in on Mr. Trump in the general election, announcing a $15 million ad campaign aimed at Jewish voters in battleground states. This commercial is part of that push.

And in another report from the New York Times:

The advertisement, produced by the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, is an example of one of the most striking advertising tactics of this campaign... The diner ad, for instance, tries to give Jewish voters, who are mostly Democrats, permission to vote for a Republican former president.

 

...But analysts said the proliferation of those targeted appeals this year — and more significant, the way they have moved to the front of the stage, in the form of splashy advertisements — was testimony to the challenges campaigns face in reaching audiences in this glutted and divided environment.

 

It also shows how tight the race for president is, where even a sliver of votes from, say, Jewish grandmothers in Philadelphia, could be critical. In the case of Mr. Trump, Republican analysts said, the hurdle is to appeal to voters who might be open to him based on his policies — in this case, his unyielding support for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister — but are put off by his style and behavior on the campaign trail.

 

(The Harris campaign, signaling the grandmothers ad’s effectiveness, responded with its own digital ad, set in the same suburban deli, with familiar Jewish political faces, Republican and Democratic alike, saying they were voting for the vice president.)

The Times of Israel reports:

The 30-second spot... is being aired in several swing states with sizeable Jewish populations, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which touted the ad as the "closing" pitch of a $15 million campaign to finagle votes for the former president ahead of the November 5 election.

 

In the commercial, three women, described by the RJC as "bubbies" and speaking with a cadence and accent considered Jewish in the popular American imagination, schmooze about Israel and antisemitism on US college campuses while seated at a booth in a deli.

 

...According to the RJC, the ad is meant to appeal to Jewish voters who may traditionally vote Democrat but have concerns about [Kamala] Harris’s presumed approach to Israel and anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

 

The spot "reflects the fear and angst that Jewish Americans across our country are feeling, as we see Israel still under attack and antisemitism skyrocketing to unprecedented levels here at home," [RJC CEO Matt] Brooks said in a statement.

 

"We encourage Jewish voters to listen to their Bubbies: it’s OK to vote for Donald Trump," the statement added.

See the ad here

Screenshot from AP video featuring RJC's door knocking volunteers.

RJC in the News

AP: GOP works to turn out pro-Trump Jewish voters in swing states to trim Democrats' edge

 

The RJC was proud to have the Associated Press join our volunteers on the ground in Michigan, where our door knocking program has reached a record number of Jewish voters.

 

The AP reports:

Rachel Weinberg calls herself a religious Jew first, then a proud American. She said she has only one choice for president: Donald Trump.

 

"I don’t like everything he says," the 72-year-old retired preschool teacher from Michigan said after volunteer canvassers for the Republican Jewish Coalition knocked on her door Sunday. "But I vote for Israel. It is our life. I support Israel. Trump supports Israel with his mouth and his actions."

 

Weinberg’s home in West Bloomfield, in vote-rich Oakland County, was among more than 20 that the Republican Jewish Coalition was visiting that morning. She has voted for Trump in previous elections as well.

 

The door-to-door outreach to Jewish voters with a history of backing Republicans is part of a new effort the group is undertaking this year in five presidential battleground states in hopes of boosting Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. Although surveys show that Jews vote decidedly Democratic, the Republican Jewish Coalition is hoping that the door-knocking will peel off enough votes to make a difference in an election year when the war between Israel and Hamas has stoked debate and provoked division.

 

...The Republican Jewish Coalition’s targeting is very specific in Michigan, as it is in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Here, its work is centered in Oakland County, the state’s second most-populous county, with 1.3 million people just northwest of Detroit.

 

It’s particularly focusing on the upper middle-class suburbs of Farmington Hills, Oak Park, Southfield and West Bloomfield — the township with the state’s largest Jewish population, where Israeli flags hang in some front windows.

 

...The Republican Jewish Coalition has purchased $15 million in advertising in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. But it’s the $5 million it has committed to door-to-door outreach that is new for this election, chiefly its investment in voter data aimed at more efficiently identifying potential Trump supporters.

Watch the video and photos that accompany the AP story and see our volunteers in action!

Forward: As spending by Jewish PACs soar, two billionaires give GOP group major fundraising advantage

 

The Forward reports:

Fueled by donations from two conservative billionaires, the leading Republican Jewish political action committee is pouring millions of dollars into a swing-state advertising blitz supporting former President Donald Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.

 

Both the Republican Jewish Coalition and its Democratic counterpart have seen spikes in donations this cycle from 2020, though the Jewish Democratic Council of America has raised about a quarter as much...

 

The RJC raised more than $18 million since the start of last year, FEC records released last week show, including a $5 million donation from Miriam Adelson, widow of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and $2.4 million from Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp.

 

...Matt Brooks, director of the RJC, said the group would spend 50% more during this campaign than it did in 2020. The Super PAC alone has more than doubled the $6.6 million it raised four years ago.

 

“This is the most consequential election in our lifetimes,” Brooks said in an interview. “We wanted to make sure that we had the full resources we needed.”

 

...The RJC has given nearly $2 million directly to Trump and an associated Super PAC, but most of its spending — more than $16 million — is going towards television ads in swing states including Pennsylvania, home to some 300,000 Jewish voters, and Arizona (85,000).

 

“Oy vey,” a character says in one spot that the RJC is running in five states for a total of more than $1 million, according to group. “You know, Trump I never cared for, but at least he’ll keep us safe.”

NY Post: Republicans tear into Tim Walz for comparing Trump’s MSG rally to Nazi event: ‘More offensive than any joke’

 

The New York Post reports:

Republicans ripped Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for comparing former President Donald Trump’s Sunday Madison Square Garden rally to a notorious pro-Nazi event held in the arena’s predecessor 85 years ago.

 

"Comparing President Trump — who has Jewish children and grandchildren — to Hitler is shameful, and trivializes the Holocaust," thundered the Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement. "Attacking Trump supporters as fascists is a disgrace.

 

"If Donald Trump was as dangerous as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz hysterically claim he is, Democrats Elissa Slotkin, Tammy Baldwin, and Bob Casey would not be featuring him in advertisements, and Holocaust survivors would not be praising him," the RJC went on. "Even the Democrat Mayor of New York City, where today’s rally is taking place, has rejected these outrageous claims by Kamala Harris.

 

"This reeks of desperation from a campaign floundering in the polls," the coalition concluded.

NPR: As war in Gaza fractures Democrats, Republicans see an opening with Jewish voters

 

NPR reports:

Jewish voters have been a reliable voting bloc for Democrats for decades, but the war between Israel and Hamas has complicated that relationship.

 

As Vice President Kamala Harris faces continued pressure from progressives in the Democratic Party to cut off military aid to Israel, some Republicans see an opportunity to win over Jewish voters in key states.

 

"Israel is in, literally, the fight for its existence," former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, now the national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told a room of supporters at a country club in suburban Detroit on Monday. "The existence of the Jewish state is at risk today — both in terms of war and battle … as well as what happens in the United States in terms of whether our support is there unequivocally or whether folks are gonna step back."


Some in the audience wore red kippahs — a symbol of their Judaism — with the word "TRUMP" printed on one side.

 

...The RJC is investing $15 million in the 2024 campaign, in an effort to win over Jewish voters in swing states through ads, canvassing and other outreach. The group is highlighting Trump’s record of support for Israel, including efforts to normalize relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors through the agreement known as the Abraham Accords.

 

RJC CEO Matt Brooks says it’s the organization’s largest investment in a campaign ever, in part because he sees this year as a likely "inflection point" for Jewish voters.

RJC volunteers in Georgia.

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RJC Event with Mike Rogers in Michigan

The RJC hosted another "road show" event last week, this time in Michigan and featuring Rep. Mike Rogers, candidate for US Senate, and Senator Lindsey Graham.

 

The Jewish Insider reports:

Speaking to Jewish voters in Michigan on Monday evening, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, made his closing pitch to the potentially decisive voting bloc, and sought to assure attendees that his outreach to Michigan’s sizable Muslim and Arab population doesn’t mean he’s compromising his support for Israel.

 

"We’re trying to do outreach in the Muslim community, but I also tell them where I’m at," Rogers said during a Republican Jewish Coalition event on Monday evening in the Detroit suburbs. "I never walk away from where I’m at on Israel, and let me tell you, the first 30 minutes are always a little bumpy."

 

But Rogers said that Muslim voters respect and support him for other policies even if there are intractable differences on Israel. And he said he thinks his frankness about Israel policy differences is winning him respect and support.

 

Rogers said that he has drawn "some very bright lines around" his support for Israel, something he alleged separates him from his opponent, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), whom he accused of shifting positions based on which constituency she is courting.

 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who spoke on a panel with Rogers and RJC Chairman Norm Coleman, a former Republican senator, added that he thinks that consistent support for Israel and opposition to Iran are helping Rogers and former President Donald Trump among Muslim voters — mirroring how Arab leaders in the Middle East responded to Trump’s support for Israel by seeking normalization.

 

Rogers, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former FBI agent, said that the current multi-front assault against Israel is "the existential threat that we all wondered about for many, many years."

The Detroit News also covered the event:

Sen. Lindsey Graham called for increased US support of Israel and proactive measures to quash antisemitism on college campuses while rallying Jewish support for Mike Rogers' senatorial bid on Monday.

 

"It is in our interest to make sure Israel thrives and survives because the people who want to kill them want to kill you," Graham told a room of supporters at the Wabeek Country Club in Bloomfield Township.

 

Graham said the best way to bring peace to the Middle East is for the US "to be strong for Israel because the Arabs respect that."

 

The men spoke as part of "The Jewish Community at a Crossroads" series of events hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

 

Matthew Brooks, CEO of the coalition, called this "the most consequential election for the Jewish community in at least a generation, if not several generations" since the 1930s or 1940s due to a wave of antisemitism in the US Jewish leaders say incidents have increased since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups killed some 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages.

The Detroit News has a short video from the event, here and more details and photos from the event as well.

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Mark Penn: The Impact of the Israel-Hamas War on the 2024 US Election

The RJC hosted a webinar last week with Democratic pollster Mark Penn, in conversation with RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman, RJC CEO Matt Brooks, and former Congressman Peter Deutsch (D-FL), who is supporting President Donald Trump.

 

Mark Penn shared the polling he's done on Israel, asking people who they support more, Hamas or Israel; whether they support Israel's strikes against Hezbollah, and so on. Most Americans support Israel strongly. They want to see a conditional ceasefire in Gaza, where Hamas returns the hostages and leaves power. They support Israel's strikes against the leadership of Hezbollah.

 

The discussion touched on the differences in the approach and response of Democratic leaders and Republican leaders when it comes to Israel, including, how Israel was talked about - or not mentioned - during the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

 

Mark looked at the leading issues of the day and how Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are doing in the polls on those issues. The panel also discussed how the Democratic Party has changed and the fact that many voters feel the party has left them behind.

 

You can watch the full conversation here.

Did you see the TRUMP KIPPAH that Matt held up during his GOP Convention speech?

GET YOURS HERE!

All Eyes on the Jewish Vote

The Jewish vote is a hot topic in every election year, and this year it's even hotter. In 2024 the election will hinge on a handful of swing states and the Jewish vote may be the key to victory.

 

Melissa Langsam Braunstein writes at the Jewish Chronicle that Jewish ballot switchers could decide the presidential election:

After a seemingly endless presidential campaign, it’s crunch time. And with poll margins razor thin, even small shifts among voters could have electoral consequences.

 

Republican Jewish Coalition spokesperson Sam Markstein told me, "Jewish Americans make up a larger share of voters than what the margin of victory was in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan in 2016 or 2020."

 

Jewish voters will once again help decide those battleground states. So it matters that a recent Combat Antisemitism Movement poll found 43 per cent of Jewish respondents said "antisemitism will impact" their votes. Specifically, 7.3 per cent of respondents typically vote Democrat but will be voting Republican this month, with another 2.5 per cent voting for Donald Trump for president but Democrats in other ballots. Meanwhile, 3.9 per cent of respondents typically vote Republican but are going to vote Democrat, with another 4.3 per cent voting for Kamala Harris but Republicans down-ballot.

 

These are the election cycle’s most interesting voters. Jewish crossover voters dissatisfied with their traditional parties are course-correcting with their votes. I spoke to three of them to understand their thinking...

The Jerusalem Post reports on the contrast between how Donald Trump and Kamala Harris appeal to Jewish voters:

As more and more experts speculate that Jewish Democrats in Pennsylvania and other swing states could decide the election, the opposing strategies of the two campaigns could be indicative of a rift within the liberal Jewish community.

While both campaigns talk about the threat to Jews and Judaism, Harris talks about Hitler, and Trump talks about Iran.

 

...Republicans seek to capitalize on this apparent rift between Democratic Jewish donors in New York and Democrat Jewish voters in swing states.

 

Sam Markstein, the National Political Director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told the Jerusalem Post that while Jews voted 70%-30% for [Joe] Biden in 2020, data shows that in swing states, those numbers were much closer.

 

In Georgia it was 50-50%. Markstein expects this discrepancy to be even bigger in 2024: "Pro-Israel Jewish voters in swing states were open to voting for Biden because he had a 50-year track record, dating back to meeting Golda Meir in Israel in the 1970s. Harris does not have a similar well of built-in support."

 

...Markstein thinks [safety] is the key issue for Jewish voters: "They ask who is keeping us safe as Jews here in America? And they ask who will be there for Israel when it needs America…Harris supported an embargo."

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reports that the Jewish chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party sees her party losing Jewish voters:

Nikki Fried, the Jewish chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, told Jewish canvassers in her state that the party was losing Jewish voters because of the robust Republican response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

 

Fried’s ostensible pep talk to canvassers seeking to reach undecided Jewish voters, coming Wednesday evening in a Zoom call organized by Florida Jewish Democrats, was unusual in her candid expressions of concern that Republicans have made gains with a constituency that has traditionally voted overwhelmingly Democratic.

 

A narrative of Jews who identified as progressive or left-leaning feeling alienated by the left since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is widely established, and Republicans have sought to peel away Jewish votes because of it. Fried’s comments represent a rare acknowledgment by Democrats of a potential impact at the ballot box.

 

..."What has happened since then in American politics has made a lot of our Jewish brothers and sisters start to question the Democratic Party," she said.

 

...Some right-leaning Jews support Donald Trump, the former president and Republican candidate, because of his record on Israel. But Fried said part of what is turning the state’s Jews toward Republicans seems to be how the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, handled campus protests that roiled the nation last spring, dismantling pro-Palestinian encampments and threatening to expel protest leaders.

Bloomberg reports on how the issue of Israel is impacting the Senate race in the battleground state of Nevada, where Jewish Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen is being challenged by the GOP's Sam Brown:

Campaigns likely to determine control of Congress next year have been largely fought on the economy, abortion, and domestic security. But Israel’s war with Hamas—and its death toll—has loomed in some races as the conflict has polarized an issue long seen as nonpartisan.

 

...[Rosen's] opponent has sought to make his own case with Jewish supporters. Brown, a Purple Heart recipient wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, appeared with other current and prospective senators at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership summit at the Venetian in Las Vegas last month.

 

The coalition has littered the state with mailers and door-hangers that accuse Rosen of "emboldening Iran" and asserting she "hasn’t done enough" to support Israel.

"Because she has all of those credentials, she should be held to a higher standard of calling these things out in her own party," said Sam Markstein, RJC’s political director.

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Stanford University encampment, via Wikipedia Commons

House Republicans Release Damning Report on Campus Antisemitism

Today, the House Education and Workforce Committee, led by Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), released a major report: Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed.

 

The report is a major act of accountability for prominent institutions that have failed Jewish students when their help was needed most, including Ivy League schools and other major public and private universities.

 

Among the committee’s many findings:

  • Top Columbia officials displayed rampant political bias, routinely deriding Republicans in Congress and taking strategic advice from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
  • As she fought to recover from damaging testimony before the Committee, Harvard’s President displayed bitter antagonism toward Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the Harvard alumna who exposed her indifference to antisemitism.
  • Northwestern put anti-Israel faculty members in charge of negotiations with pro-Hamas demonstrators.
  • UCLA leadership missed the opportunity to quickly dismantle the "encampment" Hamas supporters established there.
  • UCLA knew about the infamous antisemitic checkpoints that pro-Hamas demonstrators established to impede and intimidate Jewish students, but they took no action as students’ basic civil rights were flagrantly violated.

The longest section of the report documents the failure of a long roster of universities to fairly enforce their disciplinary policies in the face of challenge from extremist protestors.

 

By now, it’s no longer a surprise that in many instances, radical faculty are encouraging defiance among the demonstrators and using the institutions of faculty governance to aid their cause.

 

The so-called academic leaders who allowed all of this to happen have a lot to hide and the committee’s investigation is ongoing. Jewish Americans will want to reflect on the certainty that there will be no more investigations of campus antisemitism if Democrats take control of the House in next week’s elections.

 

More details in this Jewish Insider report.

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We are proud to celebrate and thank this outstanding volunteer for contacting the most Jewish potential voters through our phone banking and door knocking programs.

 

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Short Takes

Friedman: On fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel, Trump beats Harris by a mile

Jews living in America whose attire and religious practices identify them as Jews, along with Jews living in Israel, are on the front lines of the respective waves of hatred and violence domestically and inside the Jewish state. Overwhelmingly, and for very good reasons, they prefer president Donald Trump to Vice President Kamala Harris. Here are the main reasons why.

Bowman: How America benefits from its security partnership with Israel

Years ago, while working as a Senate national security adviser accompanying a congressional delegation to Israel, I asked a US military colonel assigned as an attache to the Israeli military what Americans should know about our relationship with Israel. He told me that we Americans get far more than we give in the relationship with Israel.

 

The more I have learned since then, the more I understand how right he was and how supporting Israel is a wise American investment.

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