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Dave McCormick speaking at the RJC's townhall event in Pennsylvania in September.
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Jews Were Key to Dave McCormick’s Win in PA
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Democratic Senator Bob Casey finally admitted defeat this week, conceding the Pennsylvania Senate race 17 days after Election Day. GOP challenger Dave McCormick won the hard-fought race by fewer than 20,000 votes.
RJC Leader Jeff Bartos writes at the New York Post about how important the Jewish vote was for Pennsylvania Senator-elect Dave McCormick:
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Throughout that fall, Dave confronted antisemitism in Pennsylvania with moral clarity and strong leadership.
...[W]hen the University of Pennsylvania’s president could not clearly condemn calls for the genocide of Jews, Casey was silent.
But Dave immediately called for her resignation, the first statewide leader to do so.
The now-senator-elect, his wife Dina and their senior team also visited Israel personally in January to bear witness to the horrors, meet with hostage families and show solidarity with the Israeli people.
That show of support, less than 90 days after Oct. 7, meant a great deal to everyone who loves Israel and supports the US-Israel relationship.
...Throughout the fall, prominent Jews volunteered their time and energy to McCormick’s race because they knew him to be a sincere friend of the Jewish people and state of Israel. Ari Fleischer, Matt Brooks, Dan Senor and Ben Shapiro held events across the state that each drew hundreds of attendees.
In October, McCormick attended events that commemorated the victims of Oct. 7. Once again, he chose not to speak at these events or stand on a dais with other leaders. Instead, he simply stood among the crowd.
Dave understands, intuitively, that sometimes leadership means standing with a crowd, listening and bearing witness.
On Election Day, Pennsylvanians spoke with a loud voice and voted Republican up and down the ballot. A national poll from NORC, the AP and Fox News showed that Jewish voters shifted to the Republican Party and that President-elect Donald Trump’s share of the Jewish vote was the highest since 1988.
In Pennsylvania, a Honan Group exit poll showed Trump’s share of the Jewish vote at 41%, vs. 30% nationally in 2020.
With approximately 300,000 Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, the 11-percentage-point shift represents an additional 33,000 votes.
Many of those voters also likely backed McCormick, giving him his winning margin (as of Monday, McCormick led by more than 16,000 votes).
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Ben Shapiro speaking in Jerusalem. Source: YouTube screenshot.
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Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray on the Jewish Vote
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Allisrael News reported on the 'Freedom of Zion Conference' held last week in Jerusalem. The sold-out event featured Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray, two prominent and eloquent defenders of Israel. (Video here.)
Shapiro alluded to the Jewish voter data that Republican Jewish Coalition has presented publicly, saying:
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I was talking with a data analyst, one of the best data analysts in the United States, and he said the single greatest predictor of the size of the swing in the vote from Democrat to Republican was the percentage of Jews in a particular district.
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Here's Shapiro on why he thinks so many Jews still vote for Democrats:
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"The reality is that a very high percentage of American Jews don't prioritize either Judaism or Israel. And so speaking to them in that language is utterly ineffectual because you're talking about secular atheists who identify as Jewish, that they can be part of the woke coalition, and not be considered white. That's just the reality. And I wish this weren't the reality, but it is the reality."
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Despite that reality, the results in 2024 showed a significant and important change, as Shapiro noted:
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And you saw that in New Jersey, which is a state where Donald Trump last time lost by 13 points – he lost it by five this time. You've seen it in Florida, which has gotten extremely Jewish, like a lot more Jewish. And Florida went from a dead-even state to a state that Donald Trump won by 13 points. You saw it in New York, where in New York City, Donald Trump won 33% of the vote, almost entirely in Jewish precincts of New York. And so I think that what you're seeing, actually, in the Jewish vote in the United States is that October 7th was a polarizing moment.
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State Senator Randy Fine, candidate for Congress in FL-06, speaking at the 2024 RJC Leadership Summit in Las Vegas.
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FL Jewish Republican Randy Fine Launches Campaign for House Seat
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The Jewish Insider reports:
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Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, an outspoken Jewish Republican and staunch supporter of Israel with a history of inflammatory comments, announced his campaign for Florida’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday.
Fine, 50, is aiming to replace Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who will leave the House in January to become President-elect Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Fine entered the race with Trump’s endorsement — Trump announced he’d back Fine before he even announced his campaign.
Fine has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel and helped lead a series of high-profile bills combating antisemitism in the Florida Statehouse, including codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance’s Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and formalizing procedures for Jewish day schools to receive state security funding.
...The primary election for the seat is set for Jan. 28, with a general election on April 1. Fine, a former casino industry executive, was a member of the Florida House from 2016 until earlier this month, when he joined the state Senate.
...Fine would be the fourth Jewish Republican in Congress, after Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH) and Rep.-elect Craig Goldman (R-TX).
The Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Fine hours after he announced his campaign, describing Fine as a “longtime friend” of the RJC, who had fought for issues like school choice, security funding for houses of worship, Israel and combating antisemitism.
"As the Jewish community continues to face some of the darkest days in our people’s history, President Donald Trump and the GOP continue to elevate and champion our voices," the RJC said in a statement. "Election after election, the Republican Party increasingly is the political home for more and more Jewish Americans."
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See the Republican Jewish Coalition's endorsement statement here.
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Did you see the TRUMP KIPPAH that Matt held up during his GOP Convention speech?
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GET YOURS HERE!
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Continetti: Resist the Global Intifada
As Israel defeats its enemies on the battlefields in Gaza and Lebanon, the intifada has gone global. The fronts of the war against the Jewish state encompass America's cities, the United Nations, the US Senate, and the International Criminal Court. Marches, resolutions, embargoes, arrest warrants—these are the tactics by which Hamas sympathizers worldwide intend to isolate Israel diplomatically, undermine Israel's war against terrorism, and intimidate the Jewish people.
Only one response is appropriate. America must stand in the breach. America must provide Israel with the cover and support it needs to cripple Hamas and Hezbollah and restore deterrence to the Middle East.
...Hamas breaks a ceasefire with Israel, Hamas murders, rapes, wounds, scars, abducts, and uses human shields, yet Israel takes the brunt of the response. Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and the militias and Iran fire rockets, drones, and missiles indiscriminately into Israel, yet Israel is the party to the conflict that international institutions and some US senators want to disarm. Anti-Semites threaten and harass and assault Jews from America's campuses to the streets of Amsterdam, yet it is a former Israeli minster who is turned away from Australia due to fears that her presence might incite violence. All because she is a proud Jew and Zionist.
The mind reels. Israel's enemies cannot be allowed to warp politics and society in this manner. The Senate must pass the ICC sanctions bill—not in the next session, today. The Senate must pass laws to combat anti-Semitism on America's campuses—not in the next session, today. The Senate must revive maximum pressure on Iran—not in the next session, today. Help is coming for Israel in 2025, for sure. But each moment counts when the Jewish people face growing threats from a vicious and empowered and global mob.
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Bryen: Israel-Hezbollah War: To Cease or Not to Cease
JPC Senior Director Shoshana Bryen analyzes the US-brokered "ceasefire" deal between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect today. The history, the players, the terms of the agreement, and the difficult choices for Israel are laid out clearly. One example: the Biden administration's "soft embargo" on weapons to Israel played a role. Bryen warns: "A ceasefire is not peace. Survival is not victory."
The full text of the agreement can be found here.
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Events
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PA: Book Event with Dr. Tevi Troy
Join us for hear presidential historian Dr. Tevi Troy discuss his new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry.
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RSVP
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NY: Hanukkah Party
Our third annual New York regional Hanukkah party will feature special guest Congressman Mike Lawler.
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RSVP
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NV: Hanukkah Party
Save the date for a special Hanukkah event in Las Vegas.
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SAVE THE DATE
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Contact information for our offices can be found on our website. Please visit us online for the latest RJC news, to see details of upcoming events, and to donate to the RJC. Read past editions of this newsletter here.
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Republican Jewish Coalition 50 F Street, N.W., Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20001
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