22 April 11 • 2019
jn

Michigan Jews Focus
of Trump 2020 Push
R

epublicans are planning a 
multimillion-dollar push 
directed at Jewish commu-
nities in a handful of battleground 
states in 2020, including Michigan, 
in support of President Donald 
Trump’
s 2020 re-election campaign.
According to reports Sunday 
on Politico, the Republican Jewish 
Coalition (RJC) will be spearhead-
ing these efforts.
“We are at the intersection of a 
very unique moment in time where 
we have the most pro-Israel pres-
ident ever in history in Donald 
Trump, and we also at the same 
time have a Democratic party — 
because of the pressure of the pro-
gressive left — moving away from 
the traditional support for Israel 
that has existed going back to 1948,” 
said RJC executive director Matt 
Brooks.
“This strain within the 
Democratic party is making those 
centrist and center-left Jews who 
care about these issues feel more 
and more uncomfortable; and with 
the strength of Donald Trump 
and the Republican party on these 
issues, we believe we’
ll be able 
to bring these folks over to the 
Republican side,” he added.
While Brooks didn’
t mention 
which states the RJC will be target-
ing, former George W. Bush Press 
Secretary Ari Fleischer — who is 
also an RJC member — said that “if 
you accept that there are sizeable 
Jewish populations in Florida, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania and Michigan, the 

Jewish vote, if we can make addi-
tional inroads, can be very helpful 
in putting you over the top. The 
White House knows this.”
In 2016, Trump carried Michigan 
by 10,704 votes.
The 2018 Detroit Jewish 
Population Study, sponsored 
through the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit, found that 
68,600 persons 18 years of age or 
older residing in Metro Detroit 
Jewish households are registered 
to vote, and that 94 percent did so 
in 2016. The study found that 51 
percent of these voters self-iden-
tified as Democrats, 15 percent 
as Republicans and 34 percent as 
Independents, the largest number 
of Independents of 15 similarly 
sized Jewish communities studied in 
recent years.
Regarding the Republican push 
toward drawing Jewish voters to its 
ranks, Jewish Democratic Council 
of America Executive Director Halie 
Soifer said, “This is not new. We’
ve 
seen different iterations of this in 
previous elections either in midterm 
or presidential elections, and each 
time it’
s kind of repackaged with 
a different narrative in an attempt 
by Republicans to chip away at the 
Jewish vote — and every time it 
fails.” ■

jews d
in 
the

ABOVE: President Donald Trump gestures 

after speaking during the Republican Jewish 

Coalition’
s annual leadership meeting at The 

Venetian Las Vegas, April 6, 2019.

ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES/JTA

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