A lawn sign for Rep. Randy Fine’s (R-FL) reelection campaign outside an early voting site in Flagler Beach, Fla., was spray-painted with a swastika over the weekend, local news outlets reported on Monday.

Fine is one of the few Jewish Republicans in Congress and has been vocal about his Jewish identity and advocating for Israel and against antisemitism. He’s being challenged in his primary race by Dan Bilzerian, an openly antisemitic online influencer.

Fine said he had placed the sign himself and that it had only been in place for a few days before it was vandalized.

“I was a lot more upset than I expected to be,” Fine told Fox 35. “It’s really really affected me and — I’m not going to lie — I’m pretty upset about it. … It upsets me that I live in a world where Jewish kids, let alone any kid, had to see that, and that there’s someone with so much hate in their heart that they were willing to go onto government property and do this.”

Fox 35 said that local police are investigating the incident. Fine said the vandalism, at a polling site, could constitute voter suppression.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the vandalism as “a cowardly act of intimidation.”

“As the nation’s remaining primaries take place and campaigns prepare for the November election, there have been a series of antisemitic vandalism incidents targeting political signage. Vandalizing a campaign sign with a swastika or other antisemitic rhetoric is a cowardly act of intimidation that attacks both the Jewish community and our democratic process,” the group said on X. “We strongly condemn any such defacement and urge leaders to speak out. Hate and antisemitism must never be normalized in our elections.”

Bilzerian, who has more than 30 million Instagram followers, is among the most openly antisemitic candidates to run for federal office in recent memory, launching his campaign by describing Fine as a “fat Jew,” asserting that “Jewish supremacy is the biggest threat to the world today,” calling Judaism a “terrible” religion, engaging in Holocaust revisionism, expressing a desire to murder “evil” Israelis and claiming Jews were involved in the 9/11 attacks.

He has accused Fine, as well as President Donald Trump, of putting Israeli interests over American ones.

Fine has also been an outspoken critic of Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, who has also used virulently antisemitic rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Another anti-Israel candidate, Aaron Baker, is also running against Fine.

A new ad by Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) reelection campaign will hit his runoff primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, over his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, pointing to Carlson’s criticisms of President Donald Trump, while also honing in on his attacks against Trump’s support for Israel and the war in Iran.

The minute-long ad — a five-figure buy set to begin airing on digital platforms on Friday, Jewish Insider has learned — appears to be one of the first mentions of Carlson as a target in GOP primary campaigns.

The ad opens by highlighting Trump’s support for Israel and efforts to counter Iran, contrasting that with Carlson, whom the ad states is “attacking our president for keeping America and Israel safe,” including a clip of Carlson describing the Iran war as “vile, on every level.”

It highlights that Trump had attacked Carlson as a “low IQ person” and a “fool” before playing a clip of Paxton appearing on Carlson’s show, in which Carlson expresses his support for the attorney general. “Ken Paxton still accepts Tucker Carlson’s endorsement,” the ad intones.

“Ken Paxton is taking Carlson’s side over President Trump,” the ad claims. “President Trump and MAGA stand with Israel. Ken Paxton and Tucker Carlson stand for nothing.”

Paxton has, in fact, been strongly supportive of the war in Iran and of Israel and has not expressed similar views to Carlson on the subject.

The ad closes with what appears to be an AI-generated selfie depicting Carlson and Paxton, next to a running money counting machine — a reference to corruption scandals involving Paxton, which Cornyn has highlighted on the campaign trail.

“It’s time for the crook to renounce the fool,” the ad’s narrator states.

Recent public polling has found Paxton with a narrow lead over Cornyn in the runoff, even though he trailed Cornyn in the three-person GOP primary last month. While Trump was, at one point, expected to endorse a candidate for the runoff race to clear the field, he has not yet done so.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) doubled down on his calls for two of his primary challengers in his reelection campaign to fire senior officials over their record of antisemitic statements after both candidates refused to do so — vowing on Tuesday to fight the growing tolerance for Jew-hatred in the GOP and call out aspiring lawmakers in South Carolina who excuse or embrace it. 

The South Carolina senator convened Christian and Jewish leaders for a call with reporters to criticize Paul Dans and Mark Lynch, who are challenging Graham in the Republican primary for his Senate seat, over Dans’ refusal to fire Vish Burra as his campaign communications director and Lynch declining to part ways with Evan Mulch as his political director despite their respective records of making antisemitic statements. 

Graham told reporters that while he would not typically make an issue of the behavior of staffers from an opposing campaign, he felt compelled to speak out because of the outgrowth of antisemitism in the Republican Party.

“I’m speaking more today as just an American, a senator representing South Carolina, rather than just a candidate. I’ve never had to make a phone call like this, and it, quite frankly, is disturbing,” Graham said. “There are two opponents of mine that have staff members that are very out of touch with where I think South Carolina is, and spewing hate in the form of antisemitism.”

“I’ve never done this before, but this is a problem in America, a small problem in the Republican Party, that I don’t want to grow,” he continued. “I seldom do this, go after other people’s campaigns, because I feel confident that what I’ve got to offer wins the day politically, but this is not about politics. This is not about my primary. This is about stopping something before it gets stronger, calling it out and making it unacceptable.”

Graham highlighted both staffers’ records at a news conference last Thursday and on Tuesday’s call, condemning Burra for depicting Jews as cockroaches in a video he created on the right-wing One America News Network, which ultimately resulted in his firing as a producer. 

Mulch, meanwhile, posted a photo  on X last June of a boot stepping on the Talmud and calling it a “hate filled book.”

“I call this out because I think it’s a vile antisemitic action. It has no place in politics or, quite frankly, decent society, and he hasn’t been fired,” Graham said on Tuesday. “As a matter of fact, Mr. Dans, in responding to the call to deal with the staffers, said that my campaign was controlled by Israel and that I’m being blackmailed by Israel and other affiliated groups, which I think is one of the oldest stereotypes, that the Jews control politicians.”

“When you step on the Talmud with a boot, I don’t think that’s American,” he added of Mulch. “I don’t think it’s Christian, and I don’t think there’s any place in running for higher office for people who engage in that behavior, and I’ve called for him to be fired with no response.”

While Graham said he does not believe it is inherently antisemitic to voice objections to the policies of the Israeli government, he argued that tolerance of such criticisms did equate to tolerance of blatant antisemitism.

“I’m a strong supporter of Israel, and you can oppose Israeli policies and not be an antisemite,” Graham said. “But when you’re an antisemite, not only do you oppose Israel, I think you oppose human decency and what America stands for.”

Graham told Jewish Insider on the call that he was confident “that when the people of South Carolina — Republicans, Democrats and independents — hear what’s going on, and that’s why I’m doing it today, it will be soundly rejected.”

Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition; Sandra Hagee Parker, who chairs the board of CUFI Action Fund, the political arm of Christians United for Israel; and Rabbi Yossi Refson of Chabad of Charleston spoke on the call in support of Graham’s efforts.

“We have witnessed, I believe, sadly, the institutionalization of antisemitism in the Democratic Party,” Brooks told attendees. “For us at the Republican Jewish Coalition, let me be very clear and unambiguous that this is a fight that we will take everywhere. We will ensure that antisemitism does not take hold in our party like it has taken hold in the Democratic Party. The fabric of America was woven together based on Judeo-Christian values, the values that we all cherish are built in partnership with our Christian allies and friends. Anybody who traffics in antisemitic rhetoric or antisemitic actions has no place in our party.”

Graham vowed at the end of the call to continue his push to ensure elected Republicans in and out of the state are individuals who repudiate antisemitism.

“The breadth of condemnation here and the quality of the thoughts expressed not only give me hope and prove that I’m doing the right thing. It inspires me. I am not going to let this go after what I heard today. I am never going to let this go until my last breath. I will make sure that any group, but particularly the long suffering Jewish people, have my unequivocal support.”

Dans and Lynch were unapologetic about their campaign staffers, instead releasing statements late last week and Tuesday directing their ire at Graham in deeply personal terms. 

“He’s given a member of my campaign staff more attention than he’s given South Carolinians for decades,” Dans said in a statement last Thursday. “The real headline that you should be covering is how many opioid deaths happened in South Carolina last year on Lindsey Graham’s watch. Israel picks Lindsey Graham’s staff, but they do not pick mine. I am not firing Vish Burra and I am calling on the people of South Carolina to fire Lindsey Graham.”

Lynch, meanwhile, told JI in a statement on Tuesday evening that Graham was “an existential threat to both the nation of Israel and the United States.”

“Lindsey Graham is responsible for the deaths of countless Jews in Israel by the fact that he has sent 10s of millions of dollars to Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Al-Nusra Front — funding the enemies of Israel,” Lynch said.

Each time Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro gets on a plane to visit different communities as he begins his reelection campaign, he’ll silently recite Judaism’s foundational prayer, the Shema, before takeoff, according to his new memoir.

Shapiro has always kept his Jewish faith at the center of his public identity. But in Where We Keep the Light, which comes out today, the swing-state Democrat provides the most intimate look yet at the centrality of Judaism to his understanding of the world. Widely expected to be eyeing a bid for the White House in 2028, Shapiro makes clear in his new book that he will not back away from his Jewish identity as his national profile grows. 

“My faith has never been something I thought about doing a whole lot. Not because it’s not important. The opposite, really. It’s elemental,” Shapiro writes. “It’s why I sometimes sound a little vague when I get asked about my religion in interviews or when I try to put it into words. Kind of like when you get asked to explain how you fall asleep or blink. You just know to do it. It’s part of you, without thinking. All essence and instinct.”

The book begins with the story of the arson attack on the governor’s residence in Harrisburg last year, hours after Shapiro hosted a Passover Seder there. It’s clear that the incident, in which the assailant said that he targeted the governor because of what Shapiro “​​did to the Palestinians,” impacted him deeply. 

“No one will deter me or my family or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly and proudly,” Shapiro writes. 

The next night, his family began their Seder by reciting Birkat Hagomel, which he described as “a prayer expressing gratitude for surviving a dangerous situation.” Shapiro again sought comfort in those days in the Shema, and its straightforward declaration of faith in God.

Along with his deep identification with Judaism, Shapiro doesn’t shy away from his support for Israel in his memoir. 

The Democratic Party has become more critical of Israel in recent years, and it is easy to imagine Shapiro deciding that the politically savvy move would be to talk less about his connection to the Jewish state. 

Instead, Shapiro appears to have decided that the right move — a result, surely, of both political and moral calculations — is to reveal exactly what role Judaism and Israel have played in shaping him.

Early excerpts of the book revealed that Shapiro was asked by members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ team, during the vetting process as she chose her running mate in 2024, whether he had ever acted as a foreign agent for Israel. He was also asked by Harris why he had taken such a strong position criticizing anti-Israel encampments at the University of Pennsylvania that year, and whether he would apologize for doing so. He took offense at both questions, wondering whether a double standard was at play.

He describes his first experience with advocacy, as part of the movement to free Soviet Jewry in the 1980s. He writes evocatively of a semester spent in Israel as a teenager with his Jewish day school, detailing the transformative moment he visited the Western Wall for the first time. 

“My faith in that moment was around me. I was touching it. I was breathing it. My faith was alive and its roots grew deeper under me,” Shapiro writes. “The semester in Israel flew by. I loved every minute of it.” Years later, he returned to Jerusalem with his then-girlfriend Lori to propose.

Many scenes in Shapiro’s book also play out around the Shabbat table. There was the Shabbat dinner in 2017, early in Shapiro’s first month as Pennsylvania attorney general, that was interrupted by news of President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations. There was the Shabbat dinner in 2024 when he and Lori discussed the meeting he would have with Harris, two days later, about whether Shapiro wanted to be her running mate. The family’s Shabbat dinner table was also pictured in his first TV ad during the 2022 general election for governor. 

Shapiro said he drew this lesson of embracing his Jewish faith from his experience as attorney general working with law enforcement and the Jewish community after the 2018 Tree of Life shooting. In the years after, particularly as he ran for governor, he began to have more people express to him their fear of antisemitism and of being Jewish. The answer, Shapiro writes, is not to hide.

“There have been times when I have struggled to figure out what my responsibility is as a person so public about my faith, at a time when it is more tenuous than ever to be Jewish in America,” Shapiro writes. “In these moments, I look to the Tree of Life community as my guidepost for what it means to live our faith out loud, without fear or question.” 

Whether Shapiro continues to focus more closely on his Jewish faith and the rise of antisemitism, as he does in the book — as opposed to a more universal appreciation of religion’s positive role in society — is an open question. Shapiro likes to talk in stump speeches about his “faith,” with the word “Jewish” often conspicuously absent. In his election night victory speech in 2022, he quoted the Jewish book Pirkei Avot, or “Ethics of Our Fathers.” He talked about “scripture,” and how “my family and my faith call me to service.” He did not mention Judaism. 

With his new book, Shapiro appears to be betting that standing up for his values and beliefs — even if the short-term politics might not be in favor of campaigning as a proud Jewish candidate who remains supportive of Israel — will be rewarded over the long haul by voters looking for someone who is authentic to his true self, standing by a time-tested set of clear moral principles.