Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. EST, which is expected to focus on the economy, the Ukraine crisis and U.S. global leadership.
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) will leave Congress later this year after being named the incoming CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Deutch will succeed longtime CEO David Harris, who has helmed the organization since 1990.
Deutch, who was first elected in 2010 and represents South Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, told JI, “I didn’t make a decision to move on from Congress, I really made a decision to move into this incredible opportunity to spend all of my time focused on the issues that I’m so passionate about — defending the global Jewish community and Israel’s rightful place in the world and defending democratic values.”
Former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), who held the seat prior to Deutch and vacated the seat to lead the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, told JI that the appointment is “a fabulous fit on both sides.”
“Ted’s stature and skills and passion for Israel and international affairs are only equaled by his passion for many of the domestic issues that impact the Jewish community in a magnified way,” Wexler added. “He has enormous shoes to fill in terms of David Harris. But Ted will be as effective a person from day one as they could have found. I just think it’s an ideal match.”
JI’s Marc Rod spoke to Deutch, the 31st House Democrat to announce retirement, shortly after yesterday’s announcement.
Deutch is one of several leading Democratic voices on Israel and antisemitism to leave office in recent years, but said he’s “really confident” in future leaders in the caucus. “There are really, really good, smart, passionate defenders of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the House in the Democratic Party,” he said. “This is not an issue that comes naturally to everyone. But there’s so many members for whom this is a priority that they do everything that they need to to ensure that this strong bipartisan support for Israel continues, not just next term but well into the future.” Read the full interview here.
The leaders of the House Homeland Security Committee introduced a bill proposing $500 million in funding annually for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program from 2023 to 2028, as well as a dedicated office to oversee the program.
primary day
What to look out for in today’s primaries in Texas

US and Texas flags flying over Texas State Capitol building, Austin, USA
It’s primary day in Texas, the official start of the 2022 election season. Across the state, hundreds of candidates are seeking to oust or replace current members in what already appears to be a year of record turnover, as many legislators opt not to seek reelection amid the political turbulence in Washington. While a number of races will be decided outright when polls close at 7 p.m. local time, automatic runoffs — scheduled for May 24 — will be triggered in districts where a candidate does not reach the 50% threshold. Here are some of the races we’re watching today:
TX-08: An open-seat race in the suburbs north of Houston has split Republican legislators between two leading candidates, Morgan Luttrell and Christian Collins. In Luttrell’s camp are Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, while Collins has shored up support from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Arizona state Rep. Wendy Rogers, who along with Greene addressed the white nationalist America First Political Action Conference last weekend. But with 11 Republicans vying for the nomination, the race is likely to head to a runoff.
TX-28: Progressive upstart candidate Jessica Cisneros, who came within 3,000 votes of unseating Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in 2020, is taking on the nine-term congressman, who is considered to be one of the most conservative members of the Democratic caucus. Cisneros has received endorsements from a range of left-wing Democrats — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), as well as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) — as she again takes on Cuellar, whose home and campaign headquarters were raided by the FBI last month.
TX-30: The crowded Democratic primary to succeed outgoing Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) is likely heading to a May runoff election, according to a range of experts who predict that no candidate will garner a majority of the vote required to avoid such an outcome. The ostensible frontrunners in the Dallas-based district, political observers told Jewish Insider, include the left-leaning Texas state legislator Jasmine Crockett, who notched an endorsement from Johnson — despite having previously criticized the congresswoman’s record — and Jane Hope Hamilton, a former chief of staff to Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who has shored up support from local establishment figures as well as Democratic Majority for Israel’s political action committee. DMFI PAC hasn’t committed any resources to the race but could get involved if the election goes to a head-to-head matchup this spring. Hamilton supports continued U.S. military assistance to Israel and rejects the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, DMFI PAC’s president, Mark Mellman, said last month. Crockett, for her part, has yet to make her Middle East foreign policy views known to the public. In a brief email exchange earlier this month, she said that such issues “haven’t been discussed within” the district and would need some time to fill out a candidate questionnaire shared with her by JI. She has yet to return it. In a broad follow-up statement provided by her campaign, Crockett said she is “running to address the many needs of the people in the district,” including “fairness, equity, education, good jobs and for the right of every Texan and American to have access to the ballot box and for their vote to be counted.”
TX-35: In Texas’ 35th Congressional District, Austin City Councilmember Greg Casar is facing state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez in the congressional district’s Democratic primary. In a letter sent from Casar last month to a local rabbi, which was obtained by JI, the progressive candidate and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — who has also been endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez and Warren — stated his opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and said that, if elected, he would support military aid to Israel. The letter drew a response from DSA, whose Austin chapter said it would no longer support Casar and that Casar was withdrawing his request for an endorsement. In addition to Casar and Rodriguez, the candidacy of Rebecca Viagran, a former San Antonio councilwoman — San Antonio makes up a sizable portion of the district — has the potential to force the race into a runoff in May.