by Aaron Strauss In their guide “How to Mobilize Young Voters,” Rock the Vote (a nonprofit that engages and builds the political power of young people) states, “Young adults are more likely than older adults to identify as independent, a commonsense [sic] situation for a group of voters new to politics.” Young Jews, though, seem to have seen enough of politics to know where to stand: In 2008, 62 percent of Jewish voters under the age of 35 identified with the Democratic Party; 22 percent eschewed a major party label; and 16 percent identified with Republicans. This breakdown is virtually identical to the Jewish electorate as a whole: 61 percent Democratic; 22 percent independent; and 17 percent Republican. How will the Jewish vote - especially among young people - trend in the … Continue Reading

by Mik Moore Every four years, American Jews join their fellow citizens in watching a competition full of pageantry, pomp, and politics. Then, two months after the final medal is awarded at the Summer Olympics, we choose our president. While election outcomes can be difficult to predict, the Jewish vote is remarkably stable. Each presidential candidate begins with a solid base of support. Twenty percent of Jews line up with the Republican candidate, 60 percent with the Democratic candidate. About 20 percent are uncommitted to a particular party. When the two parties compete for Jewish support, they aren’t only targeting the 20 percent of Jewish swing voters. At only about 2 percent of the population, Jews do not make a significant difference at the ballot box. But our impact is critical: … Continue Reading

by Jonathan D. Sarna “The Jews ... are numerous enough to defeat our ticket,” the editor of the Chicago Tribune warned in a private letter to an Illinois Congressman. The year was 1868 and Republicans worried that Jews would punish Ulysses S. Grant at the ballot box. Six years earlier, Grant had issued his infamous General Orders No. 11 expelling “Jews as a class” from his war zone for alleged violations of rules against smuggling. Although Abraham Lincoln had overturned that order, many Jews had neither forgotten nor forgiven the general. An anonymous pamphlet signed “A Jew” promised that “every Jew ... will endeavor to defeat and with God’s blessing will defeat you.” The 1868 election was the first presidential campaign to focus widespread national attention on the Jewish … Continue Reading

Stunning Stability: A Consistent Jewish Vote for 60 Years by Kenneth D. Wald In 1948, two social scientists published the first scholarly study of religious group voting patterns in the United States. According to the authors, Catholics, Jews, and Baptists were Democratic by margins of two to one or better. Five denominations that we would classify as mainline Protestants were Republican by equally lopsided ratios. Although the authors did not report on black Protestants, most of whom were still forbidden to vote by Jim Crow laws, data collected at the time showed African-Americans evenly split in loyalty between the two parties. Sixty years later, the exit polls from 2008 show that almost nothing is the same. Baptists have swung across the spectrum; they and their fellow Evangelical … Continue Reading