In an Arizona swing district home to a sizable Jewish community, Amish Shah, a former state lawmaker, is mounting a formidable challenge to Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), who is among the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection.

Shah, who served in the Arizona state legislature for five years before launching his congressional bid, remains somewhat unknown to Jewish community members in northeastern Phoenix and Scottsdale — who make up nearly 9% of the district and could be decisive in a close race that Democrats are eyeing to regain the majority.

In contrast with the Democratic runner-up in the primary this summer, Andrei Cherny — a Jewish activist who had engaged in concerted outreach to Jewish and pro-Israel constituents — Shah claims fewer long-term relationships in the community and has kept a more quiet profile on key issues such as Israel.

Still, even as he has left some room to define himself, Shah’s supporters describe him as a committed ally of the Jewish community and a reliable defender of Israel, which he visited in 2019 as a state legislator on a trip that “helped shape” his “world view,” he said in a Middle East policy paper written this past spring.

“He’s a strong pro-Israel candidate” and “extremely open to the Jewish community,” Aaron Lieberman, a Jewish Democrat in Phoenix who served with Shah in the Arizona Legislature and joined him on the trip to Israel, said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “I saw it in the Statehouse, where he voted with us on any issue that came up,” he elaborated, calling Shah a “pragmatic” lawmaker dedicated to passing bipartisan legislation.

Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democrat from Tucson who also served with Shah in the state Capitol, said he has “always been very supportive of the Jewish community and Israel,” noting that he was “one of the first to sign up” when she led the delegation to Israel five years ago. “I know that if elected, he will continue to be a great ally and supporter of one of the top issues for Jewish voters.”

Hernandez serves on the board of Democratic Majority for Israel, whose political arm is backing Shah’s campaign.

A campaign spokesperson for Shah, a 47-year-old physician, said his team has engaged in “relational organizing” to help drive Jewish turnout in the race, using a term to describe how supporters are using personal connections to reach potentially persuadable Jewish voters. “Dr. Shah is definitely not taking anything for granted,” the spokesperson told JI. 

Debra Stein, a political activist in Scottsdale who leads outreach and strategic partnerships for the Jewish Democratic Council of America’s Arizona chapter, which has endorsed Shah, said in an email to JI that the former state legislator “understands the significance of the district’s Jewish population and conducted targeted outreach through a series of phone banks to the district’s Jewish voters.”

On behalf of the campaign, JDCA volunteers have assisted such efforts “to talk about how Dr. Shah is a strong ally to the Jewish community and to Israel,” Stein said. 

In a Middle East position paper obtained by JI this week and drafted in April, Shah largely embraces a mainstream Democratic approach to Israel, voicing support for, among other things, continued U.S. aid to Israel with no “additional restrictions,” as he put it. He also backed Israel in its battle against Hamas in Gaza, even as he expressed reservations with war, citing his religion.

“I am a Jain person, and our first principle and most cherished core value is ahimsa, meaning non-violence, extending to all living beings,” writes Shah, who is Indian-American. “However, I believe war is necessary under a certain narrow set of circumstances.”

Shah is in favor of war “only when a ruling political entity or group embraces rhetoric to kill innocent people and then demonstrates a willingness to execute such a program,” he says, placing Israel’s effort to eliminate Hamas into that category. “I am dismayed by the lack of international pressure to oppose and dismantle Hamas,” he adds. “Israel is nearly alone in its effort, with the notable exception of the United States.”

In his effort to unseat Schweikert, who was redrawn into a highly competitive district last cycle when he won a seventh term by less than a percentage point, Shah is facing a veteran incumbent who was once seen as a renegade conservative but has tempered his positions as he seeks to court moderate voters.

Shah and his allies have focused their attacks on Schweikert’s approach to abortion, a top issue in the state, while the congressman and GOP super PACs, including the Republican Jewish Coaliton’s Victory Fund, have sought to cast his opponent as a far-left radical who is weak on border security and a backer “socialized medicine.”

Like most Democrats running in swing districts this cycle, Shah has promoted a more hawkish position on immigration, saying in one ad that he “worked with both parties to increase border security” — a claim that Republicans have rejected as misleading.

While Israel has not featured prominently in the contest, Schweikert, 62, is endorsed by AIPAC’s political action committee — which notes on its online political portal that he “has developed into a supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship over his” time in the House.

Still, some local allies of AIPAC, which has long promoted a policy of supporting so-called “friendly incumbents” up for reelection, say that they have no concerns with Shah’s record, even as they had been unfamiliar with his policies on Israel until recently and have not been aware of his Jewish outreach in the district.

“I haven’t had a single person reach out to me with concerns about his Israel position,” said a Jewish leader in Scottsdale who is backing Schweikert but believes he will be unseated in a race where limited polling has shown a dead heat. “I think he’s going to lose and I’m fine with that.”

Schweikert’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from JI.

At the end of his Israel position paper, Shah encourages readers to contact him, “even if we disagree,” he says, adding: “My commitment to dialogue and understanding is firm, and it starts at a personal level.”