Analysts are still poring over the data from Wesley Bell’s victory over anti-Israel “Squad” member Cori Bush in the Missouri Democratic primary on Tuesday night, but Rabbi A.D. Motzen is sure that the Jewish vote made a difference in Bell’s nearly 7,000-vote margin of victory.
“I can’t say with certainty that Jews made up the entire 7,000-vote margin, as we only worked on the Orthodox community,” the national director of government affairs at Agudath Israel of America told JNS. “We also don’t know how many took a Republican ballot—not many in District 1.”
“The data clearly shows that turnout in Jewish areas was the highest in the county,” Motzen added. “Even if the Jewish turnout wasn’t 7,000 more than 2022, it is still significant if the Jewish vote represented the margin of victory.”
Orthodox Jews voted in the primary at twice the rate that they did in 2022, according to Motzen, who said that Agudah’s get-out-the-vote efforts “were strictly nonpartisan” and covered Missouri’s first and second districts.
“There were many community leaders, including rabbis from across the wider community, who endorsed Bell and encouraged their friends and community to vote for Bell,” he said. “That definitely influenced whom people voted for.”
Benjamin Singer, of the voter turnout group St. Louis Together, told reporters that “it appears that Jewish St. Louisans were highly motivated to turn out and vote,” and, “in fact, we saw three times voter turnout among Jewish families compared to the average St. Louis family.”
Agudah noted that “a detailed analysis of the early voter data showed that more than 49% of eligible voters in the Orthodox community in District 1 voted early, compared to the 5.7% early voting rate of the entire county.”
“Even including Election Day, the turnout in the county was still under 30% while the Orthodox turnout was above 70%,” it added, “and likely higher once all the data is reviewed.”
