2020 Presidential Election could see a significant rise in American Jews silently voting for Trump

Or...."Don’t tell anyone, but I voted for Trump”

As the President and Founder of the 8-year-old, 600 member Memphis Jewish Republican Coalition (join us on Facebook), I would like to respond to your recently published – and misleading - article entitled “New survey indicates Jewish Americans will vote for ANY Democrat – including Sanders – over Trump”.

While I do not dispute the overall premise that a majority of American Jews have voted in the past for any Democratic Presidential candidate, there are no hard, reliable statistics on how Jews vote in each Presidential election. An electronic, blind e-poll of all-American Jews is possible to run at a reasonable cost, but has not been done, why? Because the results probably would not line up with the Jewish, liberal, Democratic power brokers who make a living speaking on behalf of “ALL” American Jews – be it the URJ, AJC, ADL, AIPAC, J-Street, etc...

Trends matter: The Jewish Virtual Library states that Jews, starting in 2000, have increasingly voted Republican: 2000/19% (Bush)-2004/24% (Bush) -2008/22% (McCain) – 2012/30% (Romney) – 2016/24% (Trump). The 2016 figure is suspected of being understated - and actually in the 35-40% range because many Jews would not admit they pulled the lever for Trump (for personal and business reasons). Most importantly, 6% more Jews voted Republican against Obama in his second term run in 2012, indicating Obama’s policies toward the economy and Israel were disaffecting middle of the road Jewish Democrats. Estimates from Jewish Republican sources indicate that 50% of American Jews are expected to vote for President Trump in 2020, which is more representative of the general non-Jewish population.

It is obvious President Trump has personality flaws (like all of us), that many find annoying, or uncouth. I can’t think of one president in the last 50 years who didn’t have a negative personal trait or two. Clinton and Kennedy weren’t exactly choir boys. With that said, President Trump has had tremendous measurable success with his policies. No one cares if a firefighter is a narcissist - if he is doing a good job at putting out your house fire. President Trump made the Tea party irrelevant, and moved the Republican party towards the center of the American mainstream. Bill Clinton’s policies of yesterday would make him a Trump Republican today.

More American Jews will vote Republican because they are more affluent - and as a consequence value President Trump’s successful economic and foreign policies

 (deregulation, trade policy, border security, etc.). Most American Jews see America’s capitalist, merit based economic system as a value where hard work is justly rewarded. They will think twice before voting for Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden, because their socialistic leanings threaten the American value system. Most American Jews are not socialists.