Donald Trump has taken a surprising lead among Jewish voters in the deeply Democratic state of New York, according to a new poll.
The Republican won the support of 50 percent of the state’s likely Jewish voters, compared with 49 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a Siena Research Institute poll.
Harris’ results show a drop in turnout since President Biden stepped down from the presidential race, when she previously led Trump among New York’s Jewish population by 52 percent to 46 percent in June.
The poll was released Tuesday, the same day Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate following a surge in polls for the Democrat.
Donald Trump has taken a surprising lead among Jewish voters in deeply Democratic New York
Kamala Harris led her Republican opponent 53 percent to 39 percent in New York as she enjoys a surge in poll numbers since President Biden stepped down from the race.
The shift marks a dramatic drop for Democrats within a voting bloc they typically dominate, with American Enterprise Institute statistics cited by Fox News indicating that Jewish voters have supported Democrats by a margin of 71 percent to 26 percent since 1968.
Nationally, Biden won 68 percent support among Jewish voters, compared to Trump’s 30 percent in 2020, and in 2016, Hillary Clinton won 71 percent to Trump’s 26 percent.
Trump’s lead among New York’s Jewish voters comes months after he held a rally in the Bronx that experts say drew a larger-than-expected audience among African-American voters.
Among all groups of voters in New York, Harris led with 53 percent to Trump’s 39 percent, a drop from Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, when he earned 60 percent support to Trump’s 37 percent.
But while the Republican candidate has said he believes he can win the Empire State in November, a Republican has not won the deeply Democratic state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
While Trump’s narrow lead among Jewish voters may not be enough to tip the balance in his favor, the new poll results may be indicative of the problems Harris faces in consolidating her voter base.
The poll was released Tuesday, the same day Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. They were seen together at her introductory rally in Philadelphia.
Supporters of Israel in its war against Hamas have expressed concern that Harris may not show the same level of support for the Jewish state compared to Biden.
The shift may be due to rampant protests among young voters over the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza, as conservatives criticise her for caving to protesters.
Harris was the first administration official to push for an “immediate ceasefire” in March, and has raised the issue several times since then in interviews criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The vice president was notably absent when the Israeli leader gave a joint address to Congress last month, and when asked recently about Netanyahu’s role in the bloodshed, Harris responded that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
The new poll was also released on the same day that Harris named Walz as her running mate, snubbing Jewish candidate Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.
The Trump campaign raised the issue of Jewish voters abandoning the Democratic Party early in the campaign, accusing Jews who vote for his opponents of hating Israel and “their religion” in a radio interview in March.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC, on July 24 before delivering remarks to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill, which Kamala Harris was unable to attend.
The Democratic Party has been divided by the war between Israel and Hamas. Pictured: Displaced Palestinians walk through a rubble-strewn street in the Hamad area in the southern Gaza Strip
Speaking to former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka, Trump continued: “Any Jewish person who votes Democrat hates their religion.
“They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed because Israel will be destroyed,” he said.
Following these comments, the White House issued a statement condemning Donald Trump’s “vile and unhinged anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Mediaite: ‘President Biden has stood firm when it comes to vile and unhinged anti-Semitic rhetoric.
‘As anti-Semitic crimes and acts of hate have increased around the world — including the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate by its name and unite Americans against it.’