77% of American Jews Voted for Biden, New Poll Finds

Question:  What percentage of American Jews voted for Trump versus Biden in the 2020 elections?

Answer: According to a new poll by GBAO Research and Jim Gerstein, a group that has studied Jewish voting patterns, 77% of American Jews voted for Biden in 2020, and 23% went for Trump.

This result aligned with historical trends, but more Jews voted for Biden in 2020 than for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The survey examined the voting behavior of Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox Jews on 13 important issues (see below). It then divided the responses by religious Jewish level of observance (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Unaffiliated).

Overall, Biden got 97% of the vote from all Jews, while 79% of Orthodox Jews voted for Trump. About 10% of American Jews are Orthodox.

At the issue level, the sample of 800 American Jews used in the poll considered these as the most critical issues:

1. COVID virus
2. Climate change
3. Health care
4. The economy
5. The Supreme Court
6. Police reform and  the pursuit of justice
7. National security
8. Immigration
9. Israel
10. Taxes
11. Education
12. Iran

In addition, the poll found Jews had very favorable opinions and feelings about Biden, Obama, and the Democratic Party.  At the other extreme, the poll said the unfavorable views of  Jews were expressed against Netanyahu, Trump, the Republican party, and Mitch McConnell. All of these were negative. The opinion of Trump is “uniquely bad” among American Jews, the poll found.

Unlike male voters with a high school education who largely support Trump, Jews with high school educations supported Biden.

Netanyahu’s Friendship With Trump Sinks His Popularity

The biggest drop in popularity was against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Jews saw as being too close to Trump. This association sank Netanyahu’s reputation among American Jews, especially when he criticized Obama on the floor of the US House of Representatives and his involvement in US policy against Iran, the poll said.

There is also a hard-core group of Republican Jews, about 20% of the Jewish population, who are consistently Republican. This group does not seem to be growing. The most prominent supporters of Jews in the 2020 election who voted for Trump were the Orthodox and the relatively few Jewish Republicans. Unfortunately, the Republican Jews were also some of Trump’s most prominent financial backers.

In a related situation, it’s now evident that Sheldon Adelson and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) may be a financial powerhouse thanks to their unprecedented financial support of Trump. Still, as a voting group, they are insignificant. Money can buy many things, but not popularity.

Adelson and the RJC are clearly out of step with 75% of American Jews, so it is pretty evident their main goal is to get personal economic benefits in the form of business subsidies and tax breaks for their businesses and estates.

Israel Is Not the Focal Point for American Jews, But Support is Overwhelming

As noted earlier, the issue of Israel ranked ninth in the concerns of American Jewish voters in the 2020 election, but this does not mean Jewish support of Israel is waning.

Most Jewish voters know it is Congress that votes to provide economic,  financial, and security support for Israel, not the president alone. The false claim that “Trump was good for Israel and Biden was not” was a rallying call from Republicans, but it was untrue. It is AIPAC that lobbies Congress for Israel, and they are supposedly bipartisan and have worked with all administrations since 1948 when Israel was founded.

However, at some recent national events, AIPAC has been exploited by some pro-Trump groups that have damaged its traditional bipartisan position. Given the poor ratings of Trump and Netanyahu in this 2020 poll, AIPAC should make sure it is not exploited by these same pro-Trump demonstrations in the future.