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July 09, 2020 |
Your weekly look at the latest news, analysis, and RJC activities around the country. |
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— Featured —
Colorado Senate Race
Republicans worry greatly about the Colorado Senate race, perhaps more than any other race in the battle for the Senate majority. We don’t want to lose one of our party's best young leaders, Senator Cory Gardner.
Undoubtedly, Senator Gardner has a tough road to reelection. To prevail in a state that is drifting leftward, he’ll need to earn the support of a significant number of voters who go Democrat at the top of the ticket.
Fortunately, Cory Gardner has a lot to offer moderate voters and independent voters - the biggest cohort in Colorado. He can cite years of effective work on important state concerns like securing permanent funding for land and water conservation and helping veterans obtain health care.
He's also been a leader on the Foreign Relations Committee, opposing the Obama Iran deal, holding North Korea accountable, and introducing bipartisan legislation to recognize and build on the accomplishments of the US-Israel economic partnership.
Gardner's Democrat opponent, former Governor and failed presidential candidate John Hickenlooper, has raised a lot of money to distract voters from Gardner’s record with a barrage of attack ads. But Hickenlooper's credibility is greatly diminished as a result of a recent ethics investigation that found him guilty of violating state rules governing the acceptance of private gifts.
Many of you met Senator Gardner when he attended the RJC's Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas or at other RJC events he's attended. If you have, you know that he is a mensch. We need more elected officials like Cory, a leader who can work across the aisle, takes foreign policy seriously, and is always grateful for the privilege of fighting for the people of his state.
The RJC PAC has endorsed Cory Gardner. You can help him win by clicking here to support his campaign.
Please watch this space for more in-depth analysis on individual races in the critical 2020 elections. If you’d like to share your thoughts with me on any of these races, please email me at [email protected]. Click here to see previous "Notes from Norm."
Have you registered for our virtual Town Hall? Click here to register today!
And please invite your friends and family to be a part of our virtual Town Hall Discussion on “The Critical Issues Facing the Jewish Community in 2020” featuring Ambassador Nikki Haley, conservative thought leader Mark Levin, Senator Norm Coleman, and RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks on Sunday evening, July 19.
• Ron Kampeas at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency profiled the RJC’s Victory Team operation:
The Republican Jewish Coalition appears to have the most advanced operation in place. With $10 million pledged to reelect Donald Trump and secure GOP control in Congress, that may not be a surprise.
The RJC’s get-out-the-vote operation already has four workers on staff in Florida, according to Matt Brooks, its executive director, and volunteers have made 300,000 phone calls to Jewish voters in swing states — a preliminary round of phone banking where the goal is not persuasion but identification, to see how committed a voter is to reelecting Trump and what issues they are considering ahead of Election Day. This lays the ground for more calls and texts later in the season that are tailored to the individual voter.
* RJC member Rabbi Alan Sherman of Florida wrote an op-ed for the Sun Sentinel explaining why he, a Reform rabbi, openly supports President Trump:
The Democratic Party is not the one you remember and support today. As Bob Dylan said, “the times they are a changing.” Today the Democratic Party and the liberal Jewish movements have been hijacked by the radical left. Its leaders kneel to its anti-Israel members whose goal is to weaken Israel and destroy it. The most recent attempt is to cut off military aid and oppose annexation. Time and again the Palestinians have rejected Israel’s peace initiatives while Democrats and J Street rabbis maintain the fantasy of a two state solution. Joe Biden has no new ideas, while Donald Trump has put forth a dynamic and innovative peace initiative. President Trump has done so much for Israel and the Jewish people. He has moved our embassy to Jerusalem, declared the Golan Heights for Israel and issued an executive order protecting Jewish college students from anti-Semitism.
…I am proud to be the only Reform rabbi openly supporting President Trump. This election is not a mensch of the year contest. Neither candidate qualifies. In comparison there is no question that President Trump comes out ahead. I invite you to join me in supporting him for reelection in November.
Read the whole thing.
President Donald Trump on the stage below Mt. Rushmore, July 4, 2020.
July 4 Reminded Us of What We’re Fighting For
This year’s Independence Day was marred for many of us by anti-American protests right here at home. President Donald Trump’s speech at Mt. Rushmore was a bracing antidote to the sound and fury of the “tear it all down” crowd.
Here are excerpts from that speech along with reactions from a veteran patriot, Newt Gingrich, and a proud immigrant, Liel Leibovitz, senior writer for Tablet Magazine.
President Trump:
No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America. And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.
… In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.
Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.
Newt Gingrich:
President Donald Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore may be the most important and historic speech of his career.
… President Trump [has placed himself] squarely in the middle of the cultural war on the side of America. He is fighting against those like Joe Biden, whose July 4th statement was the most anti-American of any presidential candidate in our history. Where Biden in a recent tweet said he did not want to rebuild America but transform it, President Trump clearly believes America is a country worth saving and rebuilding. The gap could not be wider.
… We are fortunate that President Trump has the courage to say and do what he believes without regard to his critics. It’s exactly what American needs.
Liel Leibovitz:
What to this immigrant is the 4th of July? It’s America’s birthday, but it’s also, in a sense, mine. It’s a confirmation of my choice to leave behind other scenes and other cultures and reinvent myself anew on these shores, and an affirmation of all the virtues that drew me here.
… The president may not be your favorite messenger, and you may be excused for doubting his commitment to much beyond his own appetites and ambitions. That’s fine. But as a statement of America’s founding principles, Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech was as eloquent and powerful a speech as any elected official has made in a long, long while, precisely because it contained, at its core, the emotional truth every immigrant holds to be self-evident: Knowing that it’s here and only here that accidents of birth can be transcended with relative ease and the full bloom of one’s genius allowed to flourish precisely because the cultural soil is so rich and so varied and contains multitudes.
The RJC is committed to reelecting President Donald Trump, keeping the Senate, and winning back the House. We encourage our members to participate in our outreach phonebank project to help Republicans win in November. It's easy, and you can do it from home! Here's how YOU can help:
- Sign up to call Jewish voters from home by clicking HERE. - Fill out all of the fields. - Listen to the instructions and write down your username and password when a member of the RJC Victory Team contacts you. - Make as many phone calls as you can. Everyone you speak to is a potential vote for President Trump and the GOP!
Sign up now and you could be the next RJC Volunteer of the Week!
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The Republican Jewish Coalition is hiring field staff for our advocacy efforts in support of President Donald Trump’s reelection in various battleground states. CLICK HERE for details and application information.
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The RJC PAC has endorsed a terrific slate of House and Senate candidates, and we need them to continue their work on Capitol Hill! CLICK HERE to donate through the RJC PAC portal and show your support for our great candidates!
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And don't forget your RJC/Trump kippah! Our extremely popular red Trump kippah is now for sale for just $18. This includes shipping and handling. Supplies are limited.
BUY YOUR KIPPAH HERE.
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Will Jewish Democrats Support Biden?
RJC Leader Munr Kazmir notes that support for Israel on the left is dwindling, and it is Republicans who stand up for Israel. He writes at length about RJC Vice Chairman’s Council member Edward G. Lewis, who traveled to Israel with President Donald Trump on his first foreign trip as President. Lewis has been active in the Republican Party since the 1960s and is a strong supporter of President Trump today.
— Events —
RJC Victory Team National Days of Action
Please join us for the upcoming RJC Victory Team Virtual Days of Action scheduled next week for Tuesday, July 14 and Thursday, July 16 and the following week for Tuesday, July 21 and Thursday, July 23. We'll be calling potential Jewish voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, key battleground states of the 2020 election cycle. Click here to sign up and help!
We look forward to scheduling in-person grassroots events and resuming our chapter activities around the country as soon as possible. Don't forget to check our web site for updates.
We also encourage you to check out the terrific content and virtual events offered by our sister organization, the Jewish Policy Center.
While RJC offices are closed and our staff are teleworking, you can reach us by email or by phone (please leave a voicemail message and your call will be returned). Contact information for our offices can be found on our web site. Please visit us online for the latest RJC news, to volunteer for our 2020 outreach efforts, to see details of upcoming events, and to donate to the RJC.
If you like the work we’re doing, consider joining us on Facebook and Twitter, and renew or upgrade your RJC membership. Ensure that your voice is heard in our party and our community!
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Republican Jewish Coalition | 50 F Street, N.W., Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20001
202.638.6688 | [email protected]
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