Far-left Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn, making a bid for the open 7th Congressional District seat in next week’s special election, has staked out strongly anti-Israel positions during the course of her campaign and political career.

Behn’s race in the deep-red seat, against West Point graduate and military veteran Matt Van Epps, a Republican, has long been seen as a long shot, but it has attracted significant interest and support from national Democrats hoping for a show of Democratic strength in an upset victory.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Behn in Tennessee earlier this month, and Behn has outraised Van Epps, $1.2 million to $993,000. Former Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who vacated the seat earlier this year, won in 2024 by 20 points, but polls show Van Epps leading by just 8.

Behn called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and described the war in Gaza as a genocide as early as Oct. 29, 2023, weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, shortly after she was elected to the statehouse.

“I can’t sit on the sidelines, as so many of our elected officials have done the past few weeks. Their silence is deafening. Our struggles are global and inextricably linked as our liberation is bound together,” Behn said. “The United States is funding a genocide in Gaza right now, and this is a moment when we, as Tennesseans, need to care loudly for Palestinians as we do for marginalized communities in Tennessee.”

She expressed support for a House resolution led by far-left lawmakers calling for an immediate ceasefire.

“If you don’t live in Memphis, continue showing up to rallies and vigils in support of Gaza and Palestine, stand in solidarity with our Jewish allies who are, through their grief and loss, are calling for an end to the occupation, and link arms with our Muslim neighbors whose suffering is being unrecognized by those in power. None of us are free until we’re all free,” she continued.

In April 2024, Behn opposed a resolution expressing support for Israel and its right to defend itself and condemning the Oct. 7 attacks. “Israel is committing genocide, funded by the United States, and this resolution condones genocide,” Behn said in debate on the resolution.

She also visited the anti-Israel encampment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, describing it as “well organized, grounded in liberation politics.”

“Solidarity with these students and all of those across the country standing up to state violence and calling for the end of genocide,” Behn wrote on X.

Last summer, Behn signed onto a letter calling on the Democratic National Convention to host a Palestinian speaker.

“The pain and suffering of hostage families have been rightfully highlighted and acknowledged on national platforms,” the letter reads. “We believe that it is equally important to create space for the Palestinian experience, which has been marked by decades of hardship, loss, and displacement.”

Behn also received an endorsement from Track AIPAC, an anti-Israel group that conditions its support for candidates on rejection of support from pro-Israel groups and support for declaring Palestinian statehood, among other criteria.

Her campaign has also been supported by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Behn’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

In previous mayoral elections in New York City, a candidate’s meeting with a controversial imam who was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — and who has stridently opposed homosexuality and condemned America as “filthy” and “sick,” among other extreme remarks — might be expected to meaningfully dent support for his campaign.

But even as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, has drawn criticism over his recent meeting with Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam who leads Masjid at-Taqwa in Bedford-Stuyvesant, political experts say that such backlash is unlikely to influence the outcome of the Nov. 4 election.

That Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and Queens state assemblyman, appears poised to withstand scrutiny over his relationship with Wahhaj, which he has defended, underscores how dramatically the political environment has changed in New York City — where the emotional resonance of the 9/11 terror attacks has long played a central role in campaigns and elections.

“Dead cops and firefighters don’t seem to matter much these days,” Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant who is leading an anti-Mamdani super PAC, told Jewish Insider on Monday. “I think it’s a generational question,” he added, noting that “the people who are voting for” Mamdani “weren’t even born on Sept. 11.”

While he said that Mamdani’s meeting “isn’t helpful” and could ultimately push some voters concerned about public safety to instead back one of his rivals — including the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, or former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, running on an independent line — “the question is whether they can generate a vote,” according to Sheinkopf.

“That’s not clear yet,” he explained, saying the controversy could be “buried under” Mamdani’s continued focus on affordability, which helped drive his upset over Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June.

Both Cuomo and Sliwa have attacked Mamdani for the meeting, with the former governor zeroing in on Wahhaj’s history of homophobic comments — including remarks in which the imam called homosexuality “a disease.”

Mamdani, who would be the first Muslim mayor of New York City if elected, has dismissed criticism of his Friday meeting with Wahhaj — whom he praised as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”

Mamdani claimed over the weekend that Mayor Eric Adams as well as former New York City Mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg had met with the imam or campaigned with him. “The only time it became an issue of national attention was when I met with him, and that’s because of the fact of my faith and because I’m on the precipice of winning this election,” he argued.

Bloomberg, who faced backlash for inviting Wahhaj to a meeting with Muslim leaders in 2009, later said he would not have been likely to include the imam if he was aware of his background, even as the former mayor vowed “to reach out to everybody” during his time in office.

While de Blasio delivered remarks at Masjid at-Taqwa in 2021, it was unclear if he met with Wahhaj while serving as mayor. De Blasio, who has endorsed Mamdani, did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Monday. 

For his part, Adams, who is no longer seeking reelection, appeared alongside Wahhaj at an interfaith breakfast in 2015, when he was Brooklyn borough president, though he does not appear to have previously campaigned with the imam, as Mamdani suggested.

“If the assemblymember wants to liken himself to Mayor Adams, perhaps he should also join the mayor in condemning Hamas, denouncing the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ and speaking out against the surge of vile antisemitic hate we’ve witnessed across our city and country since Oct. 7,” Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokesperson for Adams, said in a statement to JI on Monday. “Something tells me he won’t.”

Wahhaj, who could not be reached for comment, was included by federal prosecutors on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was never charged and has denied ties to the attack, which killed six people.

Delivering a lecture in Toronto in 1993, Wahhaj speculated that the Mossad, the Israeli national intelligence agency, could have been behind the bombing, according to an online transcript of his remarks. “Can I say the Mossad did it? No. But I’ll say one thing. It has the fingerprints of agencies like the Mossad,” Wahhaj allegedly said. 

Despite such comments, the fallout over Mamdani’s meeting with Wahhaj has been relatively limited — a dynamic that one Democratic consultant in New York City attributed in part to “a willingness to move away from traditional allies and embrace radical actors” on both sides of the aisle.

“We are at the point of insanity that a candidate for mayor is meeting with someone with a well-documented history of radicalism and bigotry, including espousing a belief that white people are the devil and associating with violent extremists who’ve committed acts of terrorism, including several of his own children who ran a terrorist training camp,” the consultant, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, told JI.

But ultimately, he added, “the media ecosystem is so fractured that it is very hard this late in the game to introduce new information to truly persuadable voters in a way that trumps their concerns about other issues.”

Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only far-left, anti-Israel candidate running for mayor in a city with a notable Jewish constituency in November. As we’ve noted in these pages, socialist Katie Wilson is vying to unseat Mayor Bruce Harrell in the Seattle mayoral race. And far-left challenger Omar Fateh is running competitively against Mayor Jacob Frey in a closely watched Minneapolis mayoral contest.

But one lower-profile race featuring a Democratic Socialists of America activist with involvement in anti-Israel groups has flown under the radar. In the progressive city of Somerville, Mass. — just outside Boston and bordering Cambridge — City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. advanced to a runoff against another city council member, Jake Wilson. 

In the city’s first round of balloting, which ousted the city’s sitting mayor, Katjana Ballantyne, Wilson finished first with 42% of the citywide vote, but Burnley wasn’t far behind with 34%. Ballantyne, facing a backlash to the city’s rising housing costs, lagged in third place with just 23% of the vote.

If Burnley prevails, he would be the city’s first Black, openly queer and polyamorous mayor, according to Axios.

But Burnley’s unconventional self-identification pales in comparison to his radical record. He’s been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and has been active in the organization for at least the last several years. He has participated in anti-Israel protests, including one where he is standing in front of a protester holding a sign with a Nazi swastika flag next to an Israeli flag. At a Tufts University anti-Israel protest last year, he posed in front of posters reading “Glory to the martyrs.”

He has touted his endorsement from the anti-Israel group “Somerville for Palestine” and walked out on a Jewish constituent objecting to the city council’s consideration of a measure that would require Somerville to divest city funds business from companies that do business with Israel. In 2018, he was pictured being involved with the anti-Israel group IfNotNow.

Unsurprisingly, Burnley holds extremist views on other major issues of consequence, most notably supporting efforts to defund the police and describing the founders of the United States as “genocidal, racist, rapists who stole this country because they wrote some nice words.”

Burnley’s surprising advancement to the general election is another sign of the growth of far-left politics within the Democratic Party — particularly in urban centers. While the first round of results suggests that the more-experienced Wilson starts as the favorite, the fact that someone with Burnley’s extreme politics is in the running and could win one-third of the vote is alarming.

Peter Chatzky, the deputy mayor of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., and the latest of seven candidates to join the field of Democrats hoping to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in New York’s Hudson Valley region, is standing out from the field with the comparatively critical stance he’s taking toward the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Though Chatzky called Israel a “critical ally of the United States,” he told Jewish Insider in a recent interview that he believes, from public information and reports he has seen, that Israel is violating conditions in U.S. arms sales law relating to humanitarian aid and international law — requiring the suspension of arms sales.

The district, New York’s 17th, has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country. Lawler has made his support for Israel a centerpiece of his time in Congress, and most of the Democratic candidates in the race are showcasing their pro-Israel bona fides.

“[U.S. support for Israel is] incredibly important to people in this district, many like me, many are Jewish. Many have family in Israel,” Chatzky said. “I think all of us in this district believe that Jews have a right to feel safe, particularly in Israel, and I think U.S. policy has to recognize that. I think the safety of the Jewish people, the safety of an ally, is paramount, and should be paramount in everything we do.”

At the same time, Chatzky said he believes findings from international observers and media that Israel is in violation of U.S. laws conditioning arms sales on adherence to human rights law and support for humanitarian aid. He said he’s also been concerned by pictures and video coming from Gaza.

“Israel has a 100% right, 1,000% right, to defend itself. I recognize war is brutal,” he said. “We have an obligation in the U.S., we have a legal obligation, we have a moral obligation, to uphold our own standards, our own laws. … I think the U.S. could be doing a much better job, and we should do it with every ally. This is not an Israel-specific thing. Every ally should be held to our high standards of morality and support for humanitarian aid.”

Chatzky said that the U.S. should be “maximizing efforts to provide humanitarian aid” and doing “all we can” to protect innocent civilians.

He said that the issue is “sensitive” in the district, and that there are some constituents who are not willing to engage with any criticism of Israel or suggestion of wrongdoing. Chatzky said he has family in Israel, but said he has not had the opportunity to visit the Jewish state.

He said he would not support efforts to impose specific conditions on arms sales to Israel that aren’t applied to any other U.S. allies, though he said he might support efforts to expand congressional oversight over such matters globally.

Chatzky said he supports a two-state solution, but that such an outcome depends on having representative governments that are willing to negotiate — something that is not currently the case in Gaza.

“Hamas is certainly not representative of all the people who are living on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians. I don’t think they have the same sort of democracy-focused interests that true leadership would require to establish that two-state solution,” Chatzky said. “It’s still a lofty goal. It would be great. I don’t have the magic formula to get there next week.”

Asked about the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, Chatzky said he doesn’t feel there has been enough “transparency” or “reliable information” available about the strikes, their effectiveness and the impact of those strikes on civilians. “It’s hard for somebody who doesn’t have access to all the privileged information to know what the facts are,” he continued.

He said he supports a negotiated solution to deal with Iran’s nuclear program, adding “nobody really wins if a nuclear war is initiated anywhere. And I think America always has to take whatever steps they can to limit that.”

While Chatzky said that he “can’t really defend” Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to fully disavow calls to “globalize the intifada,” he said that Mamdani “does seem to have tremendous support among some Jewish leaders.”

“I haven’t seen him taking actions I would claim to be antisemitic,” he continued. He said he thinks Mamdani understands and will do what is necessary to protect the Jewish community in New York City. “Making assumptions that he would somehow ignore such a significant chunk of his constituency — I’m not seeing anything in that in his campaign so far.”

Asked about the rise of antisemitism domestically more broadly, Chatzky said that “we have to take a critical look at everything governments are doing and make sure they’re not even accidentally inspiring more antisemitic behavior.”

“We have to just be careful about the policies we’re putting in place and who we’re blaming,” he continued. “We’re currently in an America that seems to be bent on divisiveness and finding people to cast blame on. And I’m worried some of the antisemitism we’re seeing is because of that sort of national attitude of ‘Who’s the bogeyman in this instance?’ And we have to avoid that at all costs.”

Chatzky, in his campaign, is highlighting past confrontations with President Donald Trump’s business as a private citizen, mayor and deputy mayor of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. At different points in time Chatzky and the town successfully blocked or forced the Trump organization to modify plans for development and major events at Trump’s golf course in the district.

“I am the only one who’s actually battled toe-to-toe with Donald Trump,” Chatzky said.

Chatzky argued that he’s also the only candidate in the Democratic field with a decade of experience in elected office and 40 years of experience running a business, having founded a tech company.

He said that a crucial job for Congress will be to rebuild the institutions and reputation of government disrupted by Trump and his administration. He said he also wants to see the U.S. build its social safety net, something he said he’s always done for his own employees in his business career.

At the same time, he said he’s had experience at the local level working across the aisle with Republicans and with colleagues to his left, explaining, “it’s about building coalitions, which I think is badly needed in American national-level politics today. I think we all have to start speaking together much more comfortably.”

As of the end of the third quarter, Chatzky fell in the middle of the pack of Democratic candidates in fundraising. Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson led with $855,000, followed by national security veteran Cait Conley with $816,000, Chatzky with $680,000, nonprofit executive Jessica Reinmann with $535,000, former FBI agent John Sullivan with $301,000, former journalist Mike Sacks with $212,000 and Tarrytown village trustee Effie Phillips-Staley with $152,000.

Leading elected officials in Minnesota are remaining silent in response to a top Minneapolis mayoral candidate, far-left state Sen. Omar Fateh, whose campaign has faced scrutiny for employing staffers who have celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and called for Israel’s destruction, among other extreme views he has yet to publicly address.

Fateh, a 35-year-old Democratic socialist, now employs a campaign communications manager, Anya Smith-Kooiman, who, in now-deleted social comments recently unearthed by Jewish Insider, has endorsed the Hamas attacks as a justified act of “resistance,” said Israel “does not have a ‘right’ to exist” and “must be dismantled,” and amplified a comment dismissing widespread reports of sexual violence on Oct. 7 as “propaganda,” according to screenshots. 

Meanwhile, David Gilbert-Pederson, a local political activist and City Council aide who has been listed as a Fateh campaign staffer in filings, has unreservedly praised the Oct. 7 attacks, insisting in remarks on a December 2023 panel discussion that supporters of the Palestinian cause must “stand in unconditional solidarity with those resisting oppression.”

But even as some of the state’s leading Democratic lawmakers have endorsed Fateh’s rival, incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, who is seeking a third term, they have so far declined to weigh in on the staffers’ comments and Fateh’s decision to hire them, which has raised questions about his acceptance of extreme rhetoric on a particularly sensitive issue.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Gov. Tim Walz, who are Frey’s most high-profile backers in what is expected to be a hotly contested race, both avoided addressing the matter to JI. A spokesperson for Klobuchar declined to comment on Friday, and representatives for Walz did not return multiple requests for comment.

Prominent Democratic officials who have not taken sides in the mayoral contest also did not respond to requests for comment — including Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor who is now running for U.S. Senate, and Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), a pro-Israel lawmaker also seeking to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN). A spokesperson for the senator did not respond to a message seeking comment about Fateh.

The muted responses underscore an increasing reluctance among many Democratic elected officials and public figures to speak out against extremist or antisemitic language related to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

In Minneapolis, only one of the three City Council members who have endorsed Frey’s reelection bid was open to weighing in on the matter, denouncing the campaign staffers as well as Fateh’s judgement for choosing to employ them.

“Defending the Oct. 7 terrorist attack is disgraceful, and it’s embarrassing that Sen. Fateh is OK with this behavior,” Linea Palmisano, a Democratic councilwoman, told JI on Friday. “Who mayors surround themselves with matters, and anyone who stands by these remarks isn’t ready for the job.”

LaTrisha Vetaw and Michael Rainville, the other Council members supporting Frey, did not return requests for comment.

While Fateh himself has not used the same rhetoric as his allies, the state legislator has been a staunch critic of Israel — calling for a ceasefire 10 days after the Hamas attacks and accusing Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza. 

Fateh has also voiced his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, which some critics have accused of stoking antisemitism, and has pledged not to engage with the local Jewish Community Relations Council, according to a candidate questionnaire solicited by the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, a supporter of his campaign.

In the document, portions of which were recently obtained by JI, Fateh vowed to “refrain from any and all affiliation” with the JCRC, which the DSA dismissed as a “Zionist lobby group” akin to AIPAC, J Street and Christians United for Israel — even as the group is nonpartisan and represents the Jewish community to Minneapolis government officials.

Fateh did not share an explanation for his answer despite space to do so, according to the document reviewed by JI. 

Steve Hunegs, executive director of the JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas, sharply criticized the state senator’s responses to the DSA in a statement to JI on Friday, while questioning his commitment to combating antisemitism.

“Sen. Fateh’s campaign slogan promises a ‘city that works for everyone,’” Hunegs said. “But how can Sen. Fateh be understood as anything other than a divider when he’s pledged to boycott Jewish organizations? Likewise, how can Jews feel that our safety will be a priority when Sen. Fateh’s staff traffic in antisemitism? As proud Jews we aren’t going to allow Sen. Fateh, the DSA or Hamas apologists drive us from the public square.”

Fateh’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Fateh, who assumed office in 2021 as the first Muslim and first Somali American to serve in the Minnesota state Senate, won the state Democratic Party endorsement last month over Frey, who has challenged the results. 

The mayor, 44, is the second Jewish mayor to represent Minneapolis and has been increasingly outspoken against rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ attacks, while opposing some resolutions on Israel in the City Council that he has dismissed as one-sided. He has also been a critic of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Mike Sacks was taught as a child to fight antisemitism — literally — with left jabs and left hooks and right crosses.

His father, he said, taught him to box as an elementary schooler “because [my father] had to fight back against Jew hatred as a kid and as a young man,” having been subjected to antisemitic taunts.

Now, the former political journalist turned Democratic candidate in New York’s 17th Congressional District told Jewish Insider, rising antisemitism is a factor in his bid to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). But he also accused Republicans of cynically weaponizing the issue with no intent to actually address the problem.

Sacks told JI in an interview earlier this month that local and nationwide antisemitism was a major reason he decided to run, saying “I’m running for my community, my congregation and my country.”

“As a Jewish father raising my kids in the Jewish faith, this is my community. It’s not a political issue for me. It’s personal,” Sacks said. “When I go to Congress, this is not an issue I’ll take on to score political points, but for the rights of my community and my faith.”

“I was raised with an understanding that what is good for the Jews is what’s also good for the community and for the country, and to seek out and vindicate those universal values from which this country is founded,” Sacks continued, “that has helped make it a haven for Jews since we first started arriving in this country.”

“Under the guise of addressing antisemitism, [President Donald] Trump is attacking American values and violating our Constitution in the Jewish people’s name,” Sacks said. “These are values — free speech, due process — that we’ve learned from history, when turned on other people will be turned on us too. It’s un-American, and that’s not how we overcome antisemitism.”

He said that his patriotism and his sense of civic pride is deeply entwined with his Jewish identity, and said he wants to ensure that everyone, regardless of background, can share that sense of pride.

Sacks called antisemitism on college campuses a real problem that must be addressed, but argued that the Trump administration’s policies stripping research funding from universities and rescinding visas from anti-Israel demonstrators are not serious efforts to combat antisemitism.

“Under the guise of addressing antisemitism, [President Donald] Trump is attacking American values and violating our Constitution in the Jewish people’s name,” Sacks said. “These are values — free speech, due process — that we’ve learned from history, when turned on other people will be turned on us too. It’s un-American, and that’s not how we overcome antisemitism.”

If elected, he said he’d speak out against antisemitism, work to facilitate dialogue and support Nonprofit Security Grant Funding. And he said he’d support any legislation to combat antisemitism that he believed was sincere and would be effective, and was not aimed at scoring “political points off our people’s plight and peril.”

He didn’t speak specifically on whether he would support Lawler’s Antisemitism Awareness Act, but accused Republicans of trying to protect those making antisemitic accusations that Jews killed Jesus in amendments to the legislation.

Sacks also accused Republicans of weaponizing antisemitism in the 17th District race, referring to an incident in which a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson called out Sacks and the other 17th District candidates over the vandalism of an Albany GOP headquarters building with the word “Nazis.” The spokesperson demanded the candidates condemn the vandalism, which occurred more than 100 miles away, in another part of the state.

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Sacks called the move “cynical” and in “bad faith,” adding, “we need to confront these efforts to use our own identities against us head-on.”

He hinted toward his family’s Jewish background in his campaign launch video, which includes a shot of Sacks working on a Hebrew workbook with one of his sons at their dinner table, a scene that a campaign spokesperson described as a weekly occurrence.

Sacks described himself as a “proud Zionist guided by my belief in our need for a Jewish democratic state,” adding that he associates himself with “the 69% of Israelis who want to bring all the hostages home and have a ceasefire.”

He said he “stand[s] against those on the far left who deny the necessity of a Jewish state” as well as those on the far right who would “sacrifice Israel’s democracy to extend control over all the Palestinian territories.” Sacks said he would oppose any efforts to block weapons shipments to Israel.

Sacks associated himself with those protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Yair Golan, the leader of a left-leaning opposition party in Israel. (This interview took place before recent comments by Golan sparked widespread backlash.)  He described Israeli figures like Yitzhak Rabin and author Amos Oz as his “heroes,” condemning the “racist extremism” of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and blasting Lawler for meeting with Ben-Gvir during his trip to the U.S. last month.

He said that a two-state solution is the best path to ensure Israel’s security and existence as a Jewish state, which he emphasized must include removing Hamas from leadership in Gaza and fighting for a pathway to Palestinian statehood. “I do not believe [the two-state solution] is dead. I do not believe that it can’t be resurrected if it is dead. I believe that is the only way forward,” he said.

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Sacks argued that new leadership is needed in the U.S. to help move back toward a two-state solution, arguing “the U.S. needs to be led by a government that does not sympathize with those in Israel who would follow in the footsteps of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin,” referring to Ben-Gvir.

Sacks traveled to Israel in December 2008, as Israel was launching Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. He said that his takeaway from those operations, after which attacks from Gaza on Israel resumed, is that “the answer is not whether to respond, but how. And the solution is political, not military.”

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Addressing the ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, Sacks emphasized that Tehran has “never been weaker” and described the Islamic Republic as a decaying and “sclerotic” regime. He said the U.S.’ path forward should be calibrated to protect Israel from “any rash decision by a wounded Iranian regime looking to stay relevant in the region.”

He expressed skepticism that Trump would be able to achieve an effective deal that would ensure peace and security, pointing to the president’s decision to pull out of the original 2015 nuclear deal during his first term, adding that Trump now appears to be renegotiating something along the same lines.

Sacks said that the original nuclear deal was “a great deal for the time,” but said that the state of affairs now and when he would be in Congress would be very different, and his support for any potential deal would “depend on the details of the deal in context with that geopolitical moment and the security demands of our allies in the region.”

Addressing his candidacy more broadly, Sacks said that his prior career as a reporter gave him a “front row seat to the deterioration of our democracy and billionaires profiting at our expense” and the deep issues in U.S. politics. He said rising costs and the “tepid” response from Democrats to Republican policies were other contributing factors to his run.

He framed himself as fighting to restore American democracy against a “would-be king seizing power for himself from the people to enrich his billionaire best friends at our expense.”

Former State Department official Jason Blazakis is entering the Democratic primary for the House seat representing New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, held by Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ). 

Blazakis, 48, was director of counterterrorism finance at the State Department for a decade, and previously worked on the Hill for Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. 

The New Jersey native, a Middlebury College professor, geopolitical consultant and security adviser, follows progressive activist Sue Altman and Roselle Mayor Joe Signorello III in entering the race. 

In May 2022, Blazakis wrote a co-bylined Washington Post op-ed in favor of reentering the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, dismissing the Trump administration’s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization as “a stupendously unserious move… a sanction that brought no discernible pressure on the group or Iran more broadly.” He said the Biden administration should be open to removing the designation as part of nuclear talks. 

Democrats view the seat as one of the party’s top political targets in the effort to win back control of the House. President Joe Biden carried the suburban northern New Jersey district. Kean won the seat by three points in 2022, after falling short against Rep. Tom Malinowski in 2020. The Cook Political Report lists the district as a “Toss Up.”

Hours ahead of his campaign launch, Blazakis talked to Jewish Insider about why he’s running to represent the 7th District. 

Haley Cohen: Why did you decide to run for this seat? 

Jason Blazakis: I grew up right here in Harmony Township, went to public school my whole life, and had my first job picking peaches on an orchard, which helped pay for my college education. Public service is in the roots of my family. My father served in the military, my grandfather fought in the Second World War, and I have spent my career as a national security official, fighting for democracy and counterterrorism around the world. I worked on keeping us safe from terrorism, fighting corruption and the illegal drug trade overseas. Working both at home and abroad, I’ve made some enemies, like Vladimir Putin in Russia, resulting in me being sanctioned by the Russian regime. I’ve seen the threats anti-democratic regimes pose to fragile democracies around the world, and I worry about similar anti-Democratic MAGA extremists here at home, and those in Congress who enable them. 

HC: Some House Democrats have distanced themselves from Israel. Which wing of the Democratic party do you more identify with when it comes to your position on Israel?

JB: I’ve dedicated my career to fighting the global spread of antisemitism and other forms of extremism and mis- and disinformation. I am proud to call myself a steadfast ally of the State of Israel and in Congress, I will remain a strong and unwavering ally of Israel.

While serving as director of the Office of Counterterrorism and Terrorism Finance at the U.S. Department of State, I was responsible for sanctioning anti-Israel, anti-Jewish terror groups and am proud to have led this fight.

HC: Should President Biden invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House?

JB: I’m glad the Biden administration has made an invitation [to meet with Netanyahu in the U.S.], and this important meeting should happen this year. This meeting will be in keeping with the strong bilateral relationship that the United States has with the government of Israel.

HC: Based on your career history at the State Department and in counterterrorism, what legislation would you pursue on Capitol Hill?

JB: Working in a bipartisan manner across all branches of government is critical to mitigating the threats posed by terrorist groups, both to the United States and Israel. These threats continue to persist and in Congress I’ll work on legislation that will utilize our existing tools like sanctioning these terrorist groups. In addition, I’ll work on enhancing information-sharing at a bilateral level between the U.S. and Israel, which works to counter current terrorism threats.

HC: New Jersey used to be referred to as “America’s medicine chest” with most of the large pharmaceutical companies headquartered in this state. If elected would you support efforts to impose more price controls on new drugs in the face of strong opposition from the major drug companies?  

JB: Here in Jersey, insurance and prescription drugs are way too expensive for a lot of people. 

We must do more to keep costs down and expand access to affordable care. I don’t support hyper-expensive proposals that would take away employer-sponsored health insurance and hurt Jersey. People deserve affordable, high-quality choices in the health insurance market, and that’s what I’d work to deliver in Congress.

HC: What legislation would you champion to improve the state’s economy?

JB: We must reinstate SALT [state and local tax] immediately, so we can build amore affordable community where working families can thrive. Trump is the reason we lost SALT deductions here in Jersey. Trump and his enablers in Congress like Tom Kean have only hurt Jersey families and Jersey’s economy. 

Marc Rod contributed reporting. 

Republicans had high hopes that the party would be able to take back South Carolina’s first congressional district this election. They had a candidate with an impressive resume and solid financial support, a district that President Donald Trump won by 12 points and a first-term incumbent who had been elected by just 1.4 points.

But three weeks out from Election Day, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC) appears to have secured a solid lead over Republican state Rep. Nancy Mace.

A new poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee found Cunningham leading Mace by 13 points, and race handicappers including the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball have moved the race from “Tossup” to “Lean Democratic” in recent weeks.

Gibbs Knotts, a political science professor at the College of Charleston, credited Cunningham’s fundraising and “really effective commercials” for his success in widening the polling gap between himself and Mace.

“[He’s] somebody who’s really about not being super ideological,” Knotts told Jewish Insider. “That message has been able to get out, and he’s been able to tell that story a bit more.”

State Rep. Nancy Mace

Cunningham’s advertising has emphasized bipartisanship, Knotts continued, and highlighted votes in which he has bucked the party line. Several of Cunningham’s ads point to the freshman legislator’s fight against a congressional pay raise proposed by Democratic leaders. “There’s nothing I won’t do in D.C. to put the Lowcountry first,” Cunningham says in one ad. 

Cunningham even received praise from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for his position on coronavirus-related unemployment benefits in a recent senatorial debate.

Nevertheless, Knotts cautioned that the DCCC-commissioned poll may somewhat overstate Cunningham’s lead. “It’s going to be close even with a strong candidate like Joe Cunningham,” he said. “I expect it to remain in the single digits.”

Mace’s campaign disputed the results of the DCCC’s poll.

“Right on cue, after blockbuster Q3 fundraising that breaks national records for amount raised over D incumbents, the DCCC comes out with a polling memo that defies science,” Mace campaign manager Mara Mellstrom told JI. “This race is a toss-up and all interested parties are acting accordingly… Believe your eyes — not a selectively leaked hack poll designed to scare money away at the close.”

Mace raised $2.3 million in the third quarter of 2020, while Cunningham raised $1.8 million. This gives Mace a cash on hand advantage going into the final month of the election — Mace has $1.7 million on hand compared to Cunningham’s $1.2 million, The State reported.

Knotts characterized Mace as having failed to “articulate her clear vision,” according to Knotts.

“She did not have a breakout moment in the debates,” Knotts said. “She had some bright spots… [but] I think Cunningham certainly held his own.”

Knotts also noted that Cunningham has solidified his support among college-educated suburbanites in the district, who are proving to be a key constituency for Democrats nationwide this cycle.

This support also “bodes well” for Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison and Vice President Joe Biden in this year’s surprisingly competitive statewide races, Knotts said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) spent a good portion of the five-week August Senate recess driving through Alaska and meeting with voters in an effort to boost his profile ahead of his November reelection battle. “I’ve been getting out with my wife,” he said in an interview with Jewish Insider as he drove north from Anchorage to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley on a recent September afternoon.

“We’ve covered well over 1,000 miles in my truck,” added Sullivan, estimating that he had interacted with approximately 2,000 voters at outdoor campaign events and rallies during his peregrinations through Alaska. “We were all over the state.”

The Republican senator is well aware that he needs to work hard to defend his seat this cycle. In 2014, the first-time candidate narrowly defeated the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Mark Begich, by just three points. 

Now, the roles have been reversed as Sullivan prepares to go up against a formidable challenger, Al Gross, an independent allied with Democratic Party leaders who has picked up traction in the state.

Though polls from June and July suggested that Sullivan, 55, was comfortably ahead of Gross, recent numbers have indicated that the race may be tightening. A Public Policy Polling survey, conducted in late August, found that Sullivan and Gross — both of whom have raked in millions of dollars in campaign donations — were tied with 43% of the vote.

The race has become increasingly acrimonious in recent weeks as the two candidates have traded barbs in an ongoing series of attack ads. A possible Supreme Court nomination and an in-state mining scandal have added to the high stakes in a contest that is drawing national media attention as well as significant outside spending.

Gross has run a strong campaign, experts say, casting himself as a political outsider in a state that favors them. The 57-year-old Jewish doctor has sought to play up his background as a commercial fisherman and gold prospector. Gross, who was born and raised in Alaska, is also an outsider of another sort: He was the first to have a bar mitzvah in the state’s southeastern portion. (His parents flew in a rabbi for the ceremony.) 

But despite his status as an independent, the playing field is still unfavorable to Gross in historically red Alaska, whose top elected officials are currently all Republicans. 

Gross’s odds further decreased last week when the Alaska Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reprint ballots to include candidates’ party affiliations and not only list how they got elected — meaning Gross, who ran in the Democratic primary, will likely be identified as a Democratic nominee rather than as an independent, which could diminish his prospects at the polls.

Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks to constituents. (Courtesy)

“Gross is fighting well and will likely capture a portion of the vote, but I have yet to see a key indicator that he is likely to win,” Amy Lauren Lovecraft, a professor of political science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told JI. “Sullivan just hasn’t had any large missteps that would turn his base against him or cause new folks to vote for him rather than his competition.”

Sullivan remains confident that he can win over voters, accusing his opponent of hoodwinking Alaskans by not adhering to any party affiliation as he campaigns for office. 

“He’s telling people he’s an independent, but then he’s caught on a national fundraiser telling people that he’s going to caucus with the Democrats,” Sullivan scoffed, implying that Gross was only running as an independent because it was politically expedient. “His values are to the left.”

In the interview with JI, Sullivan took aim at his opponent’s healthcare proposals — Gross supports a public option for Medicare — but reserved his harshest criticism for Gross’s foreign policy views, particularly on Iran. 

Gross opposed President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement and believes the United States should be brought back into compliance with the deal.

“I saw my opponent said he thought it was bad that we pulled out,” Sullivan said, alluding to a June interview with JI in which Gross expressed his disapproval of Trump’s abandonment of the deal. “I couldn’t disagree more.”

Sullivan declared that one of the primary reasons he decided to run for Senate in 2014 was because he so strongly disapproved of former President Barack Obama’s approach to Iran. 

“The appeasement that was going on with regard to Iran was shocking, it was dangerous, and it was something that I thought was not only bad for America but very bad for our most important ally in the Middle East — and that’s Israel,”  Sullivan told JI. 

Sullivan, who has not travelled to Israel during his time as a senator, touts his record when it comes to the Jewish state. He is, along with the majority of Senate members, a co-sponsor of a proposed bill, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would give states permission to require that companies pledge not to boycott Israel. Sullivan said he signed on to the bill because he regards the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as part of a rising tide of antisemitism in the U.S.

“Part of the reason I was one of the original cosponsors of that was to show that, at least from the Congress’s perspective, we don’t find that acceptable,” he said, adding his disagreement that the act would infringe on free-speech rights. “I think it’s important to send a signal from the Congress of the United States that those movements on boycotting Israel are completely unacceptable.”

Sullivan and his wife, Julie. (Courtesy)

The first-term senator previously worked as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and as Alaska’s attorney general. Before that, the Ohio-born Republican served as an assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Sullivan, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2013, is now a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve.

“When I got to the Senate, I didn’t need to be educated on the importance of the U.S.-Israeli relationship,” Sullivan said. “I also certainly didn’t need to be educated on the threat that the terrorist regime in Tehran posed to Israel and posed to the United States.”

His experience in the State Department, where he worked from 2006 to 2009, molded his view of international relations and diplomacy. 

During that time, he told JI, he helped push for Israel’s inclusion in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and traveled the globe as part of an effort to convince America’s allies, including France, Germany, Norway and Japan, to divest from the Iranian oil and gas sector.

Sullivan commended Trump’s actions with regard to Iran, singling out his decision to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whom the senator regarded as a grave threat to the security of American troops in the Middle East. 

“As soon as I got to the Senate, I started giving speeches about this guy Soleimani,” Sullivan said. “I’ve talked to the president numerous times about him. I’ve talked to the senior military. What the United States did with regard to the strike against Soleimani is that we reestablished deterrence,” Sullivan added. “This is really hard.”

Sullivan believes Trump’s tough posture toward Iran has helped the United States in brokering recent agreements between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. 

Sullivan on the campaign trail. (Courtesy)

“Most of this, of course, is driven by the recognition that the biggest threat in the region, whether it’s to Israel, or to Saudi Arabia, or to the UAE, is Iran,” Sullivan said. “The Trump administration has been very steady and focused on this in a way that has dramatically shifted the narrative,” he told JI, “in a way that, I think, takes advantage of the changing circumstances on the ground in a really important way.”

Sullivan added his concern that Trump’s diplomatic achievements would be in jeopardy if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — who has said he will reenter the Iran nuclear deal — is elected in November. “He would be undermining this progress,” Sullivan said. 

“This is what is at stake with regard to this election,” the senator concluded.

Sullivan can at least remain hopeful that he will hold onto his seat even if Trump isn’t reelected, though he told JI that he is operating on the assumption that he needs to run an aggressive campaign nonetheless. 

“Alaska, from my perspective, is a lot more purple than red,” Sullivan said. 

Ivan Moore, a veteran pollster who runs Alaska Survey Research in Anchorage, agreed with Sullivan’s appraisal of the state’s political makeup. 

“I think he’s still the favorite, but there is the potential for an upset,” said Moore, adding that the state has been trending purple in recent years as young transplants who aren’t interested in working in the energy sector move to the state.

While Sullivan appears somewhat vulnerable this cycle, Moore predicted that he would hold onto his seat. But whether that will be the case six years from now remains to be seen.

“The days when a Republican could run a weak campaign, not really pay much attention to it and still win by 10 or 15 points,” Moore told JI, “are kind of a thing of the past.”