Washington Jewish Week: Jews Still Overwhelmingly Democrat, Survey Finds

October 17, 2018

By Jesse Bernstein

Just over three quarters of American Jews have an unfavorable view of President Donald Trump, and 74 percent of them plan to vote for Democrats in next month’s midterm elections, according to a new poll from The Jewish Electorate Institute, a new group founded by Jewish Democrats and released on Wednesday.

Though those findings track with decades of prior data — Jews have largely voted Democrat since the beginning of the 20 th  century, and no presidential candidate has ever bested the 43 percent of the Jewish electorate captured by Warren G. Harding’s 1920 campaign — other findings revealed some interesting tensions created by the Trump era.

Though 24 percent of the 800 respondents said that they had a favorable view of Trump, 51 percent said that they approved of the way he had handled U.S.-Israel relations. 41 percent approved of the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and 6 percent said that they’d consider voting for him based on his work on U.S.-Israel relations alone, despite their other reservations about his time in office.

In addition, 64percent said that they believed the Democrats to be a “pro-Israel” party, and 84 percent of those identifying as Democrats also identified as “pro-Israel.”

“Israel policy is not going to win Republicans any votes in November,” said Hailie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

The Republican Jewish Coalition did not respond to a request for comment.

The poll was conducted by The Mellman Group, which has polled for Democrats and Jewish and other groups.

The issue of being “pro-Israel” had large internal factions: 32 percent described themselves as both pro-Israel and supportive of its policies; 35 percent said that they’re supportive of Israel, but remain critical of some policies; and 24 percent responded that they were pro-Israel but critical of “many” policies. Just 3 percent said that they were “generally not pro-Israel.”

Healthcare was Trump’s worst-polling issue with the Jewish voters surveyed. Seventy-eight percent responded that they disapproved of the job he’d done thus far. Eighty-three percent listed “making quality affordable healthcare available to every American” as “very important” when it came to deciding how they vote.

By contrast, 52 percent ranked Israel as “very important” to how they will vote.

POLITICO: The DNC is meeting — and Israel is at the forefront once again

April 10, 2026
Democrats’ internal feud over Israel is rearing its head on the party’s biggest stage — again.  Critics of Israel’s military actions and the pro-Israel lobby’s interference in recent Democratic primaries are setting up thorny test votes at the Democratic National Committee’s spring meeting in New Orleans on Thursday, where members will debate resolutions recognizing a Palestinian state, conditioning military aid to Israel and condemning the “growing influence” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other dark-money groups.

Survey Shows Most U.S. Jews Are Not Following Pro-Israel Spending In ’26 Primaries And Are Divided On Its Value

April 7, 2026
To: Jewish Electorate Institute From: The Mellman Group Re: Survey Shows Most U.S. Jews Are Not Following Pro-Israel Spending In ’26 Primaries And Are Divided On Its Value Date: April 6, 2026 

U.S. JEWS IDENTIFY AS BOTH PRO-ISRAEL & CRITICAL OF ITS GOV’T

April 7, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: info@jewishelectorateinstitute.org TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2026 202-695-0531 U.S. JEWS IDENTIFY AS BOTH PRO-ISRAEL & CRITICAL OF ITS GOV’T Jewish Repub’s, Indi’s Support Pro-Israel Spending in Primaries; Dems Less So AIPAC popular among R’s, not as much among D’s; DMFI better liked by D’s WASHINGTON – As the Democratic National Committee sets to convene in New Orleans this week and consider resolutions on Israel and its AIPAC lobby, a new poll for the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI) finds the majority of American Jews identifies as both pro-Israel and critical of the Israeli Government. There is limited awareness of the spending by pro-Israel groups in the 2026 primaries, with only one in ten saying they have heard a great deal about it. Attitudes split on partisan lines with majorities of independent and Republican Jews supporting this spending, while a plurality of Democrats is opposed. But still, the majority of Democrats are either not sure or supportive, the poll finds. These are among the top findings of a survey of registered Jews nationally for the JEI by The Mellman Group, several others of which were released last week before Passover. A fuller release of all its findings will come on Friday, after the holiday ends. Further, attitudes about AIPAC and DMFI, the pro-Israel groups spending the most in these primaries, are also split on partisan lines, with AIPAC slightly underwater among Democrats, and popular among Republicans. DMFI is less known but better liked among Democrats. J Street’s numbers are relatively even but measurably smaller. This analysis is based on the findings of a survey of 800 registered Jewish voters nationally. The survey was conducted for JEI by The Mellman Group using a high-quality online national panel from March 13-23, 2026. The margin of error for the sample as a whole is +/-3.5% at the 95% level of confidence (higher for subgroups). Majority of U.S. Jews Identifies as Both Pro-Israel and Critical of Israeli Policies An overwhelming 86% of American Jews describe themselves as generally pro-Israel. However, fewer than one-quarter (23%) say they are both pro-Israel and supportive of Israeli policies. A 63% majority identifies as pro-Israel and critical of the Israeli government policies – split roughly equally between those who are critical of some policies (32%) and those critical of many (31%). Just a combined 14% say they are not generally pro-Israel (9%) or do not hold a view (5%). This trend is not dissimilar to one in the JEI poll that shows Jews are also generally patriotic towards America but also critical of some government policies, numbers for which will be released Friday.  While pro-Israel sentiment extends across party (84% of Democrats, 90% of independents, 94% of Republicans), Democrats are considerably more likely to be critical of Israeli policies (73% critical) than independents (44%) and Republicans (39%).