From Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Chris Rabb in Philadelphia to Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York City, Democratic primary voters nominated candidates who accused Israel of genocide, forcing Jews to choose between backing nominees whose views they think odious and abandoning the party that has long shared their values.
Less than two weeks before Election Day, political activists told JNS that it’s still too early to know what impact these candidates—should they be elected on Nov. 3—will have on the Democratic Party’s traditional support for Israel.
“We are in the middle of the battle,” Democratic consultant Joel Rubin told JNS. “It’s like the third quarter of a football game. You can’t really say you’ve won, even if you’re ahead. You can’t say you’ve lost even if you’re behind.”
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, acknowledged the high-profile wins of members of the Democratic Socialists of America and others who have been increasingly critical of Israel following its response to the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Despite victories by El-Sayed in Michigan’s Senate primary, Rabb winning the nomination for an open Philadelphia congressional seat, and Chevalier ousting pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Adriano Espaillat, Soifer said most Democratic candidates on this year’s congressional ballot continue to support the Jewish state.
She told JNS that the JDCA endorsed 171 pro-Israel Democrats this year—its largest number ever.
“In the general election, there will be 468 Democrats on the ballot for the Senate and the House,” Soifer told JNS. “There are 10 to 15 of those 468 Democrats running whose views on Israel are so far to the left that I would say they are not aligned with the majority of Jewish Americans. We’re talking about a handful of candidates.”
Pro-Israel Democrats won their share of primary races against critics of Israeli policies. Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), who ousted Cori Bush two years ago, beat her again. Maryland state Rep. Adrian Boafo won the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, won the Democratic primary over two anti-Israel candidates to succeed Haley Stevens, who narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the Senate primary.
“It could have been worse,” said Guy Ziv, an American University professor and associate director of the school’s Center for Israel Studies. “It’s a mixed bag, right? In some places, the establishment candidate won and in others, the progressives prevailed. I don’t think we can draw any definitive conclusion from the primary results.”
Drop in support
Polls by Siena University showed the drop in Jewish support for congressional Democrats. In October, asked which congressional candidate they would support for the U.S. House, 55% of Jewish respondents said the Democrat and 41% said the Republican. But in 2022, asked which party they wanted to control the House, 79% said the Democrats and 18% the Republicans.
At the same time, Jews also saw Israel opponents such as conservative commentator Tucker Carlson gaining enhanced visibility in the Republican Party. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been an outspoken critic of Carlson, calling him out before the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“We also have to keep in mind that the Republican Party has fielded candidates that have made problematic statements themselves using tropes that should make the Jewish community nervous,” Ziv told JNS.
To cite one example, U.S. President Donald Trump recently used the name “Shylock” at a rally in Kansas in support of U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.).
Shylock is a Jewish character in William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” which has been criticized for its antisemitic stereotypes. The Anti-Defamation League condemned the use of the term but did not mention Trump by name.
“You are being pressed from both sides,” Julie Roginsky, a Democratic consultant and strategist, told JNS. “You’ve got the Republican Party that is obviously trending in a dangerous direction and you’ve got the Democratic Party that is trending in a dangerous direction.”
Of concern to pro-Israel Democrats is that the critics of Israeli policy could wield disproportionate influence if the party wins one or both chambers of Congress, the same way the far-right Freedom Caucus has gummed up the works in the current GOP-controlled U.S. House.
To gain the speakership in 2023, then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made a deal with the Freedom Caucus that made it easy for the House to oust him later that year. Then the party’s most conservative members blocked a series of successors until Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected three weeks later.
No endorsement
The Jewish Democratic Council of America this year withheld its endorsement from three Senate nominees whose races could determine whether the party wins a majority—El-Sayed, Troy Jackson in Maine, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.
All three have accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, and the Michigan Jewish community has voiced consistent concern toward El-Sayed’s repeated anti-Israel rhetoric. El-Sayed included Carlson in a campaign ad and campaigned with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has called Orthodox Jews “inbred.”
“Just those three races could determine control of the Senate,” Sam Markstein, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s political director, told JNS. He said the RJC believes El-Sayed is “the most antisemitic U.S. candidate to ever seek a Senate seat.”
“They’re kowtowing to these extremists,” Markstein said. “This has gone from a 100-degree fever to a 105-degree fever. It is a full-blown infection now in the Democratic Party.”
But Soifer questioned how much power El-Sayed would have as one of 100 senators. “He is not, in any situation, going to be leading the Democratic Party on any issue, especially not Israel,” she told JNS.
With a Democratic-controlled House more likely while the Senate appears very much up for graps—Inside Elections predicts the party, which needs to win only three Republican-held House districts to capture a majority, picking up 10 to 20 seats—a handful of Israel critics could withhold their votes from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the front-runner to become the next speaker, unless he backs off his strong support of Israel.
“A lot of this depends on how big the margins are,” Roginsky told JNS. “If they’re very close, these handful of Democrats get together to pressure Hakeem Jeffries to take a particular position in the caucus.”
That means, according to Democratic activist Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, that the party has to run up the score in November.
“It is extremely important for Democrats not just to win but to win big,” she told JNS.
Even then, the intra-party squabble over Israel will last at least until the Democrats pick their next presidential nominee, Rubin told JNS.
“This is going to play out through the 2028 primaries for president. To me, that’s going to be the real determinant of where the party is heading on these issues.”
The pro-Israel Democrats interviewed by JNS said that the defeat of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this month’s Israeli election could quiet some of the anti-Israel rhetoric among members of their party.
“Even Jewish Democrats who are very pro-Israel tend to want to see a different prime minister, and have very little patience with the idea that Netanyahu could return to power,” Mizrahi said.
She said congressional Democrats would find it hard to work with Netanyahu as they are “completely frustrated” with his “inaction” on issues that concern them, such as settler violence in Judea and Samaria.
Roginsky said that Netanyahu upended the longstanding bipartisan consensus on Israel because of his willingness to make “common cause with MAGA and with the most extremist Christian nationalists in this country.”
A self-described “staunch pro-Israel Zionist,” Roginsky said that “Netanyahu has been a complete and utter disaster for Israel and a complete and utter disaster for Diaspora Jews. He cannot lose fast enough.”
In the end, Trump’s policies, and the Republicans’ obsequiousness toward them, will overcome any qualms voters have about some of the Democratic nominees, Soifer said.
“I think the silence and complicity of Republicans in the 2026 election cycle to Donald Trump’s extreme and dangerous agenda is something they will all come to regret when Democrats win back control of the House and Senate,” she said. “The American people are sick of it, they’ve had enough of it, and it’s time for this administration to be put in check and held accountable. The Democrats are ready to do that.”
