Dear Friend,
A historic number of our fellow citizens have handed President Trump a clear defeat and elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to be the next president and vice president of the United States.
The most hateful, divisive and destructive presidency in our lifetimes is coming to an end. Donald Trump will depart the White House, David Friedman will be replaced as ambassador to Israel and others who’ve overseen this administration’s cruel and destructive policies -- from Pompeo to Barr, Cuccinelli to Stephen Miller -- will be replaced by public servants worthy of those posts.
I want to thank every member of this movement who stepped up when our democracy was on the line and our country was in turmoil to do the work that made this victory possible.
Though the final tally will reveal that Biden received one of the largest popular vote leads in decades, because of the way our electoral system is structured, things ultimately came down to some very tight races in a handful of states. And that makes the effort you put in over the past two years all the more decisive to this victory.
A little bit about that work:
- Through phonebanking, textbanking and canvassing, J Street supporters made over half a million voter contacts, with a large amount of our effort focused on Pennsylvania, Nevada and other crucial battleground states.
- Together, we filled over 2,000 volunteer shifts and sent 9,200 personalized letters to infrequent voters.
- J Street supporters donated a historic $9 million to key races, including over $2 million to President-Elect Biden, through JStreetPAC. That makes JStreetPAC the largest pro-Israel PAC for the seventh cycle in a row.
- Though it was a difficult night for challengers, we were victorious in at least 125 House and Senate races. At least 29 endorsed Senators and 117 endorsed members of the House* will serve in the 117th Congress.
Full election results, polling and more can be found on our 2020 Election Report microsite >>
And, of course, our work is far from over.
Most immediately, J Street-endorsee Jon Ossoff is headed into a run-off in Georgia, where a pair of elections will decide control of the Senate. It will be a hard-fought race, but with so much on the line, we’ve got to give it our all.
Then comes the work of turning this electoral victory into meaningful policy changes on the issues confronting our nation, Israelis, Palestinians and our planet as a whole.
And, if President Trump tries to undermine these results and interfere further with the democratic process, we and our allies within the Protect the Results coalition are prepared. Rest assured, he will fail.
For now, I hope you’ll take a moment to savor the victory that so many of you played such a large part in achieving.
Shabbat shalom and thank you,
Ben Shnider and the J Street political team
* This number is likely to rise as a few of our races remain too close to call.
