Janice R. Andrews
Unexpectedly, among Jewish voters in deep blue New York, former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris by a hair. In a poll conducted on Tuesday, the Siena Research Institute found that Trump is now preferred by 50% of potential Jewish voters, surpassing Harris’s 49% of the vote.
Trump’s current narrow edge against President Joe Biden is a significant departure from his prior position. In June, Biden was ahead of Trump by a margin of 52% to 46% among New York’s potential Jewish voters. But since then, a lot has happened in the political scene. Last month, Biden withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Harris, who quickly won the Democratic nomination.
Israel supporters are a little concerned by Harris’s quick rise to the top of the Democratic ticket. Her support for the Jewish state, according to her detractors, has waned, particularly since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip. Harris was the first administration official to demand a “immediate cease-fire” in March. She also threatened Israel with “consequences” if it moved forward with its planned invasion of the Gazan city of Rafah.
Harris has also come under fire for her connection to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some people thought she was being evasive when she answered questions about whether Netanyahu had turned into a “obstacle to peace”. “I believe that we have got to continue to enforce what we know to be and should be the priorities in terms of what is happening in Gaza,” said Harris. “We have made it quite evident that far too many innocent Palestinians have lost their lives. We have made it quite evident that Israel, the Israeli people, and the Palestinian people all have equal claims to security and dignity.”
The poll findings were made public just before Harris declared that she would be running with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who was the only other Jewish contender. This move raised rumors that Harris was motivated by Shapiro’s unpopularity within the Democratic Party, which has been adopting a more accepting posture toward Palestinians.
Jewish voters have always favored Democratic candidates in large numbers. Since 1968, Jewish voters have backed Democrats over Republicans by an average of 71% to 26%, according to a research by the American Enterprise Institute. Jewish people favored Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential contest by a margin of 68% to 30%. The same group voted 71% for Hillary Clinton and 26% for Trump in 2016.
Harris has maintained her advantage over Trump among all likely voters in New York, even though the contest among Jewish voters is close. Harris leads Trump 53% to 39% in the poll released on Tuesday, which is a considerable increase from Biden’s eight- to 10-point advantage in previous surveys.
In the Siena College Research Institute study, 1,199 New York voters who were likely to vote were surveyed between July 28 and August 1, with 8% of them being Jewish. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
An instant response was not received from the Harris campaign about Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The next election may be significantly influenced by Harris’s stance on Israel and the shifting dynamics of the contest. To win in New York, both candidates will need to address the issues raised by Jewish voters as well as those of the general public as the campaign progresses.
