Friend --
After a long night of ups and downs, there’s very good reason to believe that, once every single vote is counted, Joe Biden will win the White House and Donald Trump will be defeated.
That’s almost certainly why, at around 2:30am this morning, Trump made a shameless bid to claim victory before all the votes had been counted, calling the incoming results a “fraud.”
While the president’s actions are shocking, they are not surprising. For months, J Street has been involved in planning for this contingency in coordination with our progressive and Jewish allies in the Protect the Results coalition, which brings together major advocacy and organizing groups from across the country.
Rest assured, we are ready to take action -- if needed -- to defend the integrity of the election and ensure that every vote is counted. And we will do so in full confidence that we stand with the majority of Americans, and the overwhelming majority of American Jews.
The results of J Street’s nationwide election night polling of Jewish voters once again showed Jewish voters supporting the Democratic nominee and Democratic congressional candidates. Forget Trump’s much-touted “Jexodus.” Our poll showed 77% of Jewish voters backed Joe Biden, compared to 21% for Trump. This represents a decisive repudiation of a president who has made common cause with white nationalists, called the vast majority of our community “disloyal” and repeatedly pursued destructive, far-right policies toward Israel and the Middle East.
You can find the full results from our 2020 polling here -- and we invite you to break down the results with us during a special briefing next Tuesday at noon Eastern.
Our community recognizes the threat President Trump and his enablers pose to our democracy, interests and values -- and rejected his attempts to attract voters with right-wing Israel policies. As in previous elections, Israel was not a top voting issue for American Jews in this election -- with just 5% listing it as such. And when Jewish voters do weigh in on foreign policy, they are fully aligned with the positions of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement, Joe Biden and Democratic candidates -- including re-entering the Iran deal, opposing unrestricted settlement expansion and vigorously pursuing a two-state solution.
Our poll showed that Jewish voters support re-entering the Iran deal (74%), want Israel to suspend or restrict settlement construction in the West Bank (82%) and firmly believe, as we do, that one can support Israel while being critical of the policies of its right-wing government. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s favorability with American Jews has crashed to an all-time low of -30.
As we await the final tallies up and down ballot with a mix of hope and anxiety, I want to take this moment to thank every one of you who has volunteered, donated, rallied, organized and fought by our side. After so much work and an election night filled with both victories and disappointments, it’s been an exhausting fight -- but together, we will see this through.
As our polling and the popular vote bears out, we are the majority -- in the Jewish community and the country as a whole. And ultimately, if we stand together, we will save the soul of our nation.
I invite you to dig further into our full poll numbers here >>
Thank you again, Friend, for standing with us in the fight.
Jess Smith
Chief Operating Officer
