8 | OCTOBER 31 • 2024 
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ntisemitism, Israel and 
Jewish candidates are front 
and center in many of 
the seven swing states where either 
candidate could prevail in the 2024 
presidential election.
Those states are Arizona, Georgia, 
Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, 
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 
And while the percentage of Jewish 
voters is small compared to the overall 
electorate, the number of Jewish voters 
in many of these states exceeds the 
number of voters who determined the 
winner in the 2020 presidential race. 
Because Jewish voters are more 
likely to be Democrats, Republicans 
are making an extra effort to chip away 
at their impact and maximize Jewish 
GOP turnout. The Republican Jewish 
Coalition is spending $10 million to 
corral Jewish votes in swing states; 

the Jewish Democratic Council of 
America is spending $2 million on the 
election.
Here’s a look at the Jewish vote, 
Jewish candidates and Jewish issues 
in states where the outcome of the 
2024 presidential election is a tossup 
between Vice President Kamala Harris, 
the Democrat, and former President 
Donald Trump, the Republican. 

ARIZONA
Arizona has 85,000 Jewish voters, and 
55% of them are Democrats, compared 
to 44% of voters statewide, according 
to the American Jewish Population 
Project at Brandeis University. In 2020, 
President Joe Biden beat Trump here 
by fewer than 11,000 votes. Jewish 
voters could be a critical factor in the 
2024 outcome. 
Two of the speakers at the 

Democratic National Convention were 
from Arizona: Gabby Giffords, the first 
Jewish woman elected to Congress 
from Arizona, and her husband, 
former astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly, who 
is not Jewish. Kelly, who has served in 

Congress since 2020, was considered 
a top candidate to run for the vice 
presidency on Harris’ ticket but lost 
out to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. 
Giffords resigned her seat in 2012 
after being shot in the head in a mass 
shooting. 

GEORGIA 
Georgia, where Biden won in 2020 by 
12,000 votes, is another state where 
the Jewish vote could make a big 
difference. Georgia’s 125,000 Jews 
make up just over 1% of the electorate, 
and 75% of them typically vote for 
Democrats, according to the American 
Jewish Population Project from 
Brandeis. 
Antisemitism has been making 
headlines in Georgia since well before 
the Oct. 7 attacks and the rise of anti-
Israel sentiment nationwide. 
The Anti-Defamation League says 
Georgia is one of a handful of states 
targeted by the white supremacist 
Goyim Defense League, which has 
papered neighborhoods around 
the state with antisemitic flyers for 
the last few years. The GDL also 
held antisemitic protests last year at 
a Chabad in a Marietta suburb and 
a Reform synagogue in Macon. 
Other antisemitic incidents have 
included threats against an Israeli-
owned bakery in Atlanta and against 
the state legislature’s only Jewish 
member, Esther Panitch. 
A bill designed to curb antisemitic 
attacks, sponsored by Panitch, 
was signed into state law in January. 

The Jewish Vote 

How our demographic could swing the election 
in 7 key battleground states. 

BETH HARPAZ THE FORWARD

OUR COMMUNITY

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and Senator Mark Kelly.

DYANN TAYLOR