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Sanders would easily beat Trump among Jewish voters, poll shows

AP

Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would beat President Donald Trump 65-30% among Jewish voters, according to a new poll of 1,001 American Jews conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Associates for the non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI). 

Not close: While Trump hits 30% against the remaining candidates, the poll shows he would receive only 28% of the Jewish vote in a hypothetical match-up against Michael Bloomberg, who — like Joe Biden — would receive 67%. 

Not well liked: 52% of American Jews have a favorable view of Sanders, compared to 45% who view him as unfavorable, the survey shows. Sanders enjoys higher support among young Jews, ages 18-39. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is not far off with a 54/40% favorable/unfavorable rating.

Rating Trump: The poll, conducted February 18-24, showed that 68% of American Jews disapprove of Trump’s job performance. Nonetheless on issues related to Israel, more Jews approve of Trump’s handling of the issue than disapprove. Of those polled, 51% approve of his handling of U.S.-Israel relations, compared to 39% who disapprove. Surprisingly, a plurality — 44-40% — back Trump’s decision to support Israel annexing the West Bank, following a mapping process. 

Firing up the base: Among Jewish Republicans, Trump received 81% approval. 

Gold medal: Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg received the highest favorability rating (60%-28%) of all of the Democratic 2020 hopefuls. The survey projects he would receive the highest support among Jewish voters in a general election against Trump (69%-31%). 

Read the full polling data here.

Conclusions: Pollster Frederick Yang said in a statement, “While Jewish voters have differing opinions about the major Democratic candidates, the poll demonstrates that they will overwhelmingly support any of the current Democratic candidates over President Trump at nearly equal levels, and that Israel is not driving the Jewish vote.”

Spin: Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said in a statement, “This non-partisan poll makes it clear that the top priority of Jewish American voters is defeating Donald Trump and electing Democrats who share our values. Jews will support any of the Democratic candidates by a two-to-one margin over Donald Trump because Jews want to elect a president who shares our values in November.”

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, tells JI, “These results are consistent with what we’ve been saying since the start of this campaign that President Trump will significantly increase the share of the Jewish vote from where he was in 2016. It was only a few months ago when many pundits in the Jewish community were projecting that Trump would get the lowest share of the Jewish vote of any president in history, and now multiple polls are showing that he’s going to get one of the highest percentages of the Jewish vote in modern elections.”

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