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MICHIGAN
Michigan is home to about 100,000 
Jews, comprising a little over 1% of the 
electorate, according to the American 
Jewish Population Project at Brandeis. 
More than 60% of Jews in Michigan 
are Democrats. 
But Michigan also has 200,000 
Muslim voters, according to 
EmgageUSA, an organization 
dedicated to mobilizing Muslim 
American voters, as well as more 
than 160,000 residents of Arab 
ancestry, according to the U.S. 
Census — more than any other state 
outside of California. 
More than 85% of Muslim 
voters voted Democratic in the last 
presidential election nationwide. But 
in Michigan’s Democratic primaries 
this year, at least 100,000 Democrats 
cast “uncommitted” ballots. Those 
votes were part of a protest movement 
waged by Muslim, Arab American 
and other voters in a number of states 
against the Biden administration’s 
support for Israel in its war with 
Hamas. 
Whether those uncommitted voters 
will stay home in November or vote 
for Trump remains to be seen. Either 
way, they could influence the outcome 
of Michigan’s presidential race. Biden 
won the state in 2020 by 154,000 
votes. In 2016, Trump became the first 
Republican to carry Michigan since 
1988. 
Thirty uncommitted delegates 
attended the Democratic National 
Convention in Chicago. They 
unsuccessfully sought to have a 
Palestinian speaker at the event and at 
one point, staged a sit-in in protest. 
A political action committee began 
running ads in September in Michigan 
trumpeting the fact that Harris’ 
husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. The 
ads are apparently designed to stoke 
anti-Israel sentiment among Muslim 
and Arab voters and suppress their 
votes for the Democratic ticket.
Last year, the state’s Jewish attorney 
general Dana Nessel was among 
several Jewish public officials in 
Michigan targeted by a man who 
made death threats.

In late October, Democrats held two 
events featuring Second Gentleman 
Doug Emhoff in order to woo Jewish 
voters and convince them that Harris 
is a pro-Israel stalwart, according 
to the JTA, which also reported 
that a PAC associated with Trump’s 
billionaire ally Elon Musk had put up 
billboards just a few miles away from 
the Emhoff campaign stop, in Detroit 
suburbs with large Arab and Muslim 
populations, designed to look like 
Harris ads portraying her as pro-Israel.
“They will always support Israel 
and our Jewish communities,
” one 
billboard reads, next to the faces of 
Harris and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Jewish 
Senate candidate, superimposed over 
the Israeli flag. 
The ad’s goal is to alienate voters 

who would back Harris but who 
oppose her on Israel, and the same 
PAC has sent mailers to Jewish voters 
calling Harris anti-Israel.
“She has prioritized Israel her whole 
career,
” Emhoff said about Harris 
during his speech at the Jewish Voters 
for Harris-Walz event, in front of a 
backdrop of his wife’s name written 
in Hebrew. “I promise you that she’s 
deeply invested in the security of 
Israel and in the protection of Jewish 
people.
” 

NEVADA
Jews made up 3% of Nevada voters in 
the last presidential election, according 
to exit poll data, and 75% of those 
41,000 voters picked Biden over 
Trump in 2020. Biden won the Nevada 

count by around 33,000 votes, so this 
is another race where every Jewish 
vote is potentially critical to the 
outcome.
Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, a 
Democrat who’s up for reelection, 
could help turn out the Jewish blue 
vote. She’s currently the only female 
Jewish member of the Senate, a 
big supporter of Israel, a former 
synagogue president and founder of 
the Senate’s Bipartisan Task Force 
for Combating Antisemitism. She’s 
got a substantial lead in the polls 
over her Republican opponent, and 
Democrats know that every one of 
the 34 U.S. Senate seats up for grabs 
in this election is critical to their party 
maintaining control of that chamber. 

NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina’s 49,000 Jews make up 
just 0.5% of the electorate, according 
to Jewish Heritage North Carolina, 
but Jewish concerns are making news 
in the state this year, thanks to the 
gubernatorial race between a Jewish 
Democrat, state Attorney General Josh 
Stein, and his Republican opponent, 
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. 
Stein, who is leading Robinson in 
the latest polls, was the first Jewish 
candidate to win a statewide race 
when he became attorney general, 
and he would be the state’s first Jewish 
governor if he wins this one. Robinson 
would be the state’s first Black 
governor. 
Although Robinson has denied 
accusations of antisemitism, he’s 
been called out as a Holocaust denier 
and for indulging in antisemitic 
tropes. He used the word “hogwash” 
to describe the Holocaust, and he 
endorsed a podcast host’s claim that 
Jewish bankers are among the “Four 
Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
” He also 
said an “agnostic Jew” in Hollywood 
made the Black Panther film to “pull 
the shekels out of your Schvartze 
pockets.
” 
Israel is also an issue in North 
Carolina. More than 88,000 
Democrats, or 12% of party mem-
bers, voted “no preference” in the 
Democratic presidential primary 

Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch, center.

CHERYL DORCHINSKY
ANDREW LAPIN/JTA

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff stumps for Kamala Harris at an event for Jewish 
voters in suburban Detroit, Oct. 20, 2024.

