Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Michigan Republican nominee for Senate, issued a statement Wednesday commemorating the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and bashing his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, while El-Sayed remained silent.

El-Sayed’s rhetoric and stances on Israel and other issues of concern to the Jewish community have been heavily scrutinized, and he is facing significant skepticism from traditional Jewish Democrats in Michigan, as some community leaders and elected officials say they plan to sit out the Senate race or support Rogers.

El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to multiple inquiries from JI about whether he planned to issue a statement on the Oct. 7 anniversary, and has not shared any such statement publicly.

“Three years ago today, the world witnessed in horror the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Rogers said. “This dark day is a sad reminder that evil exists all around us. And how we respond to evil determines how much it grows.”

Rogers went on accuse El-Sayed of stoking hate and violence, pointing to a fundraising message his campaign sent on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks criticizing Israel (his campaign has said it was sent in error); criticizing El-Sayed for campaigning with Hasan Piker, who has been dismissive of the attacks; and issuing a widely criticized statement following the terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich.

“Hate like that has no home in Michigan,” Rogers continued. “You have my work, I will always stand proudly alongside Michigan’s Jewish community, against terrorism, and for Israel’s right to defend itself. We must root out antisemitic hate in all forms — because when we say ‘never again,’ we must mean it.”

Rogers later called out El-Sayed for not issuing a statement.

“Radio silence from Abdul El-Sayed about the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. … I wish I could say this is shocking,” Rogers said in a late-afternoon post on X. “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”

The son — and one-time campaign worker — of Dan Cox, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, sent Facebook messages predicting “Israel will fall” and calling Jews “scum who killed my savior Jesus” and the “Synagogue of Satan,” according to a post from a GOP consultant.

Republican operative Alexandra Levine shared screenshots of messages allegedly from Josiah Cox, the GOP gubernatorial nominee’s son, that were posted to a Facebook group in June. The profile in the images uses the same name and photo as one the gubernatorial hopeful tagged in a 2024 post, which also called his son his “bodyguard” and shared photos of him, including one with then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

“Jewish customs disgust me,” one of the screen-grabbed missives reads. “You’re pedophiles and Satan worshipping scum and you slaughter innocents all around the world.”

The message continues: “Israel will fall either by the might of the nations God sends against it or in the end times when Christ returns and wipes them off the face of the earth. I long for that day. Enjoy the rockets you brought on yourself.”

Another of the images Levine posted includes the references to killing Jesus and the “Synagogue of Satan,” ancient antisemitic libels. Josiah Cox also declared himself “More right wing that [sic] you can imagine.”

“Christ is king, down with zionists,” that message concludes.

According to Levine, the exchange began in March, after the younger Cox commented that Israel does not have a right to exist on one of her posts.

“His father is running for Governor of Maryland and this is how he feels!” Levine wrote at the time. “If Dan wins the primary, this rhetoric will continue. What I’m finding is that Dan is working with the Alt right [sic] of the Republican Party and allowing these antisemitics [sic] to be apart [sic] of his campaign.” 

Cox — a 2020 election denier who had helped bus supporters to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally and called former Vice President Mike Pence a traitor — won Trump’s endorsement and even a fundraiser that the then-former president hosted at Mar-a-Lago during his previous run against Moore in 2022. Maryland campaign finance records show that Josiah Cox made thousands of dollars off his father’s 2022 race against the eventually victorious Moore.

State records show no payments from the campaign to the younger Cox this cycle.  

In her Facebook post, Levine added that she had contacted Dan Cox about the messages but got no answer after three months. She urged members of the Facebook group, “Everybody’s Maryland Politics,” to support the former state lawmaker’s primary opponent.

“I do not want Jewish Republicans to vote for this man who has a son who clearly hates Jews,” she wrote, before concluding, “Jewish people, reject the Anti-Israel Cox train!”

Levine declined to comment on the record for this story, except to say that Dan Cox had apologized to her and she no longer regarded him as culpable for his son’s behavior. She deleted the Facebook post shortly after speaking to Jewish Insider.

Neither Cox responded to repeated questions from JI.

Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, released a new ad featuring the University of Michigan student who confronted his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, over his positions on Iran and its repressive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a viral exchange last week.

In the 30-second campaign ad posted on Friday, Iman Dashti, who identifies as Persian American, says that his family “escaped oppression in Iran and found freedom in America,” before calling El-Sayed “a real threat to our national security and our values.”

“Abdul raises money from dangerous people who finance terrorist networks, and his family has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida,” Dashti alleges. “I know the threats of radical Islam, and I know Abdul El-Sayed can never, ever be a U.S. senator.”

A spokesperson for Rogers’ campaign confirmed to Jewish Insider the seven-figure ad buy, launched in conjunction with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is running statewide on digital platforms and will begin airing on TV on Saturday.

The ad comes after Dashti had confronted El-Sayed during a town hall last week at the University of Michigan, pressing the Democrat to unequivocally condemn the Iranian regime. He also voiced dismay over leaked audio in which El-Sayed admitted he did not want to comment publicly on the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, after he was killed during U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in February at the start of the Iran war.

“That silence had a gaping hole in our community,” Dashti said, asking El-Sayed if he stands “unequivocally against the IRGC,” the Islamic Republic’s hardline military force.

In his response, El-Sayed did not explicitly denounce Iran or the IRGC even as he also clarified during a heated back-and-forth that he wants “freedom and democracy for the people of Iran — no question.”

El-Sayed further confirmed that he will “always stand for and with democratic movements,” but clarified he did not “believe that we were in the right to go to war to topple the government of Iran,” reiterating his criticism of President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against the Islamic Republic. 

While El-Sayed’s comments drew applause at the town hall, his answers soon faced backlash after they had circulated online. Dashti later went on Fox News to speak out against El-Sayed before shooting the ad for Rogers.

In a social media message accompanying the ad, Rogers said that Dashti “and his family deserve better than someone connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda.”

“They deserve someone who stands up to the IRGC, not someone who defends it,” he added. “Michigan deserves better.”

A spokesperson for El-Sayed did not respond to a request for comment about the ad, the latest in a series of attacks from Rogers seeking to cast his opponent as a terrorist sympathizer aligned with extremists.

Rogers, a former congressman who unsuccessfully ran for Senate last cycle, has long been a vocal critic of Iran and had initially backed Trump’s decision to attack the Islamic Republic. 

But as the war has emerged as a vulnerability for Republicans amid voter dissatisfaction with rising prices, Rogers has more recently called for an end to the conflict — underscoring a rare point of alignment with El-Sayed in their bitterly contested race to win a key battleground state.

“The war in Iran needs to end, and end quickly,” Rogers argued in an ad his campaign released last month. “When it does, energy costs will plummet — but Michigan families can’t afford to wait for that to happen.”

Caught between a scandal-plagued Republican nominee and a young Democrat who tacks further left on Israel than many are comfortable with, Jews in the Lone Star State find themselves in a Texas-sized bind when it comes to the pivotal Senate race between state Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Rep. James Talarico.

“I think Texas Jews are between a rock and a hard place in this race,” Norri Leder, a co-founder of Houston Jewish Women Vote and a board member of the local Jewish Federation, told Jewish Insider. “On one hand, you have Ken Paxton, who has a lot of ethical issues that trouble a lot of voters across party lines. With Talarico, you’ve got someone who, like many Democrats, is just afraid to discuss this subject [Israel] with the Jewish community too much. That’s been hard.”

Leder added: “I don’t think he’s in the same camp as [Michigan Democratic Senate nominee] Abdul El-Sayed, but he hasn’t robustly engaged with the Jewish community so we can fully understand his positions.”

In fact, Jewish leaders in Texas say, neither candidate has done much in the way of outreach to their community, which has left them seeking more engagement in what is a neck-and-neck race.

Art Pronin, who leads the Meyerland Area Democrats Club, a largely Jewish Democratic group in the Houston area, said that while he could not “remember a statewide race in Texas that had a heavy focus on reaching Jewish voters, because there are not a lot of us,” he believed that the state’s Jewish community was “seeking a little more open courting of our voices and our vote given the national climate.”

“I think this is a moment where our voices and our votes as Jewish Americans matter in this country and in this state,” Pronin told JI. “Let’s say the polling that calls this race a 50-50 split is correct. There’s more than 200,000 of us. Neither candidate can afford to alienate or dismiss any minority group, including Jews.”

Talarico, despite running in a reliably Republican state, has not moderated his rhetoric around Israel, calling for reductions in military aid to the Jewish state though not going as far as to label Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as a genocide, as many progressive Democrats have done. He has also vowed not to take any money from AIPAC in the campaign, despite having no such qualms about support from the pro-Israel group during his time in the state legislature. 

“He really wants to maximize turnout and enthusiasm among the Democratic activist base, and we know the reality is that all of the energy in the Democratic Party right now is anti-Israel,” Southern Methodist University political scientist Matthew Wilson told JI.

Wilson added that Talarico’s positions on cultural issues are so progressive that he has little ability to make inroads with the socially conservative evangelical constituencies that are also strongly supportive of Israel. 

Despite his critical rhetoric towards Israel, many Jewish voters in Texas view Talarico’s overall record on Jewish issues as acceptable, noting his support of legislation in the Texas Legislature that would require all state schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. 

While his Jewish outreach has been limited, he did attend a Rosh Hashanah service at Congregation Emanu El in Houston and took part in a roundtable with Jewish community leaders at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum last month (which was not announced by the campaign). He also participated in a virtual event hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America in May.

As one Texas Jewish leader put it while noting Talarico’s limitations: “This is Texas, not Manhattan. He needs to have these conversations with the Jewish community, and I don’t just mean the most liberal elements of it, because most of us dislike Ken Paxton in this state. I mean people in the center and the center-right.”

Seth Krasne, Talarico’s campaign manager, said in a statement to JI, “James has a record of standing up for Texas’ Jewish community and Jewish safety — combating antisemitism, defending Jewish students on the floor of the Texas House, and supporting Israel’s right to exist.”

Paxton, meanwhile, has not made Jewish outreach a focus of his campaign during the campaign, though he has discussed his support for Israel and touted his record on combating antisemitism when asked. His campaign has not promoted any Jewish community events or meetings with Jewish leaders, though he made appearances at churches across the state throughout the month of August. 

During the primary campaign, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who built up strong relationships with the state’s Jewish community, attacked Paxton for associating with far-right, anti-Israel podcast host Steve Bannon and not speaking out against the rise in antisemitism on the far right. 

While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke out against the University of Texas College Democrats’ recent decision to invite antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker to speak on campus, Paxton’s campaign attacked Piker but didn’t address whether the school should rescind the invitation. (Talarico’s campaign declined to respond to questions about Piker.) 

Jewish Democratic leaders in the state believe Cornyn would have had a chance at winning the state’s Jewish vote against Talarico, but that Talarico is likely to comfortably prevail against Paxton. 

“Paxton doesn’t [show up]. Never has,” Pronin said. “He’s never been on our side as attorney general. He doesn’t have that communal relationship with us at all. He may try to say in your story he’s a friend now, but he’s not been a friend.”

Reached by JI, Paxton campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy said in a statement, “James Talarico is a part of the antisemitic radical left that wants to see Israel destroyed. He is a part of the Democratic Socialist Movement and is no different from Hasan Piker, Zohran Mamdani, and AOC.” 

David Flippo, the Republican nominee in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, accepted a max-out donation from Robert Beadles, a prominent local GOP donor and commentator who has repeatedly promoted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Flippo, a military veteran who is running in a district that strongly favors Republicans to replace Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), has positioned himself as a close ally of the Jewish community. But according to FEC records, he has received $7,000 in donations from Beadles — the legal allowable limit — in May and June of 2026, the only donations Beadles has made thus far this election cycle.

Beadles is one of several dozen donors to give similar max-out donations to Flippo’s campaign, but according to reporting by The Nevada Independent, Beadles is a prominent Republican activist and donor in the state who has worked to “reshape Nevada politics” at all levels.

The outlet reported that Beadles has repeatedly referenced and promoted in video streams and other commentary the Protocols of the Elders of Zion — the debunked antisemitic pamphlet claiming a global Jewish conspiracy to take over the world — as factual.

He discussed the Protocols on at least 12 livestreams in 2021 and encouraged listeners to read the work for themselves, denying evidence that the pamphlet is a fabrication. He has at times linked discussions of the Protocols to claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

Reached for comment, Flippo’s campaign described the candidate as an “an ardent supporter and close ally of the Jewish community,” noting that he serves as a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition leadership council and that he started a charity after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel to send food to Israelis in need.

The RJC did not respond to a request for comment.

The Nevada Independent reported that Beadles’ history of antisemitic conspiracy theories goes back to at least 2009, when, in a book he wrote, he cited conspiracy theories that the Rothschilds, the Jewish banking family, had conspired to control various countries’ finances as well as worshipped Satan and had foreknowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Beadles went on to state that he neither agreed nor disagreed with those conspiracies and that he had no proof of them, nor did their proponents. But, The Nevada Independent said, he “devoted the first three paragraphs of the introduction [to his book] to conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.”

Beadles also maintained an account on and was an early investor in Gab, the social media platform that became a hotbed of white nationalists and antisemites, and interviewed the site’s founder, Andrew Torba, who has engaged in antisemitism.

Beadles did not respond to a request for comment.

The Flippo campaign also told JI that his Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Teresa Benitez-Thompson, has “given into the rising anti-semitism of her own party by refusing donations from American citizens who support Israel”. 

Benitez-Thompson has said on the campaign trail that she will reject support from AIPAC (not necessarily all supporters of Israel, as suggested by the Flippo campaign) and that the United Nations, which has described the war in Gaza as a genocide, “had the opportunity to leverage sanctions … but they didn’t move forward with any action.”

On her campaign site, she calls for the U.S. to phase out military aid to Israel and to place conditions on any further arms sales to the Jewish state.

The Flippo campaign noted that Benitez-Thompson has received donations from a prominent local politician affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America which “engages in blood libel by calling Israel’s actions to defend itself genocide, celebrated the October 7th attack, and falsely describes Israel as an apartheid state.”

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his endorsement of Brandon Herrera, the far-right social media influencer who is the presumptive Republican nominee in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District.

Herrera has faced condemnation for videos he posted that featured imagery, music and jokes related to the Nazis and the Holocaust. He also spoke on a podcast last year about owning a copy of Mein Kampf, though he said he does not share the views expressed in Adolf Hitler’s manifesto.

Trump previously backed Herrera’s opponent, incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), who dropped out of the race last week amid an escalating scandal.

“Brandon is strongly supported by many Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Texas, and Republicans in the U.S. House,” Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday. Herrera has been backed by the House Freedom Caucus’ affiliated PAC.

“As your next Congressman, he will work tirelessly to advance our MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN Agenda,” Trump continued. “Brandon Herrera has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Representative from Texas’ 23rd Congressional District — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Trump’s endorsement of Herrera marks a sharp turnabout for the president. Just a month ago, a lawyer for the president sent Herrera a cease-and-desist demanding he stop using Trump’s image in campaign advertisements, calling the ads misleading in light of Trump’s then-endorsement of Gonzales.

Herrera, who has generally taken an anti-interventionist stance on foreign policy issues, including opposing supplemental aid to Israel in 2024, said at the start of the U.S. strikes on Iran that he hopes that “If there must be military action, let it be QUICK, effective, and please God keep our service members safe.”

He said on X in June 2025, the day before the start of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which the U.S. eventually joined, “I don’t want to go to war with Iran. I don’t want to be involved in the Middle East. But if you decide to f*** with us (like they did last time), I wish you a very happy sunk Navy.” 

Herrera has faced condemnation and opposition in the past from groups including the Republican Jewish Coalition. Asked last week about Herrera’s comments that resurfaced last week about Mein Kampf, the RJC affirmed its continued opposition to Herrera.

“The RJC has a long-standing policy of speaking out against those who traffic in Nazi ideology, and this is another case,” spokesperson Sam Markstein told Jewish Insider. “The RJC opposed Mr. Herrera in 2024, and he will not get our support now.” 

Brandon Herrera, the presumptive Republican nominee in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, spoke on a podcast in 2024 — after his first run for the House — about owning a copy of Mein Kampf, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, earning him a fresh rebuke from the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The GOP candidate and social media influencer, whose path to the nomination was cleared Thursday when Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said he would not run for reelection amid his own growing scandal, has faced ongoing scrutiny over a video he posted to his YouTube channel including imagery, music and jokes connected to the Nazis and the Holocaust, his interactions with neo-Nazis online and his membership in a neo-Confederate group.

During a 2024 appearance on the “Unsubscribe” podcast, another guest joked that he had been deeply involved in communism until he had read another book, producing a copy of Mein Kampf. Herrera, who appeared to immediately recognize the book when others on the podcast did not, promptly turned to his phone to produce a picture of his own copy of the Nazi manifesto.

“That’s my copy at my house next to a bunch of the German stick grenades,” Herrera said. “I got the 1939 edition printed in English just because I thought it was wild that you couldn’t buy it on Amazon but you could buy The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital,” he added, making a confused face.

Herrera and the others on the podcast went on to make fun of the Nazi book, describing it as poorly written, also laughing at a dramatic reading an antisemitic passage of the book by one of the hosts.

Herrera’s comments during the segment indicate that he has reviewed this version of Mein Kampf — annotated in English prior to World War II with criticism of Hitler’s writing and ideas — in at least some degree of detail.

“It’s nice that it’s not a modern annotation … this is historical context, before Germany is ‘the enemy,’ this is what the sentiment was at the time,” Herrera continued. “I never thought I’d have an intellectual conversation about the validity of reading Mein Kampf in 2024 on a podcast.”

“Poland gives this one star,” Herrera quipped.

Herrera told the San Antonio Express News that attacks on him for owning a copy of Mein Kampf are “hilarious.”

“I bought a copy for my historic book collection, and I keep it right next to my copy of the Communist manifesto. I uh, don’t agree with either book,” Herrera said.

He also denied being antisemitic, dismissing the controversial episodes as jokes.

“If my opponents continue to purposely pretend to not know the difference between humor and jokes clipped out of context and my actual beliefs, it’s going to be an annoying few months,” Herrera continued.

Herrera has also been a critic of AIPAC since its super PAC ran ads against him in 2024.

“Look, I have as much of a reason as anyone to despise AIPAC. They spent over $1 million to slander me and cost my race,” Herrera said in 2024. “But as much as I despise their ‘Israel first’ bullshit: 1. It’s far from a top issue for me. 2. The majority of Congress on both sides have ties to them (also a [red flag]).”

He also said “AIPAC is an enemy of US Elections” and claimed that the group “forces” lawmakers to sponsor legislation.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which ran an ad campaign against Herrera in 2024 over his past controversies and his opposition to aid to Israel, again disavowed him on Friday.

“The RJC has a longstanding policy of speaking out against those who traffic in Nazi ideology, and this is another case,” spokesperson Sam Markstein told Jewish Insider. “The RJC opposed Mr. Herrera in 2024, and he will not get our support now.”

Democrats have quickly seized on Herrera’s ascension, highlighting his past baggage.

“Mike Johnson tried to quietly push sexual harasser Tony Gonzales through his primary out of fear of defending a Neo-Nazi,” DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol said in a statement. “Now Gonzales is gone and House Republicans have added another casualty to their massive retirement list. Good riddance.” (Members of Congress who decide not to run for reelection are referred to in Washington as “casualties.”)

The House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Democratic House leadership, has also been highlighting Herrera’s past controversies, and shared a post suggesting the district could be winnable for Democrats.

“Brandon Herrera’s nomination is a gift to Democrats … Herrera is an antisemitic YouTuber,” House Majority PAC spokesperson Katarina Flicker said in a statement. “Now the NRCC and Speaker Mike Johnson are aligning themselves with his extremism, and it could cost them TX-23 in November.”

Johnson’s political team did not provide comment on Herrera.

Long-shot Democratic nominee Katy Padilla Stout raised just $45,000 and ended 2025 with just $8,500 on hand, leaving her ill-positioned to a contest district that strongly favors Republicans without significant help.

President Donald Trump won the district by 16 points and Gonzales won by 24 points in 2024, though there have been indications that Hispanic voters who swung toward Republicans in 2024 may be trending away from the party. By a narrow margin, more people voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary in the district this week.

While the group has not endorsed Herrera, and typically does not make formal endorsements in safe seats, the National Republican Congressional Committee said in response to questions about Herrera that it expects Republicans will hold the seat.

“Texas’ 23rd District is deep red, and Democrats know it. While they talk a big game in Washington, they don’t even have a credible recruit and are too busy defending their own vulnerable members across Texas to compete here,” NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez said. “In November, voters will once again elect a Republican who will secure the border, lower costs, and stand up for Texas families.”

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman suddenly emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee for governor of New York in December, with Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) unexpected exit from the race against Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

Now, with the formal endorsement of President Donald Trump, Blakeman is preparing for an uphill battle in a reliably Democratic state.

Blakeman, 70, is Jewish and said he represents the greatest number of constituents of any Jewish Republican elected official — more than 1.3 million. He vowed to protect the Jewish community statewide against antisemitism, and pledged that under his leadership, the state would step in if New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani fails to do so.

Blakeman said that he has worked with the Nassau County police to deal with disruptive anti-Israel protests, setting firm rules for demonstrators, with prompt arrests if they stepped outside of those boundaries.

“If they got off the sidewalk, they would be given one chance to get back on it or they’d be arrested,” Blakeman said. “We didn’t take any nonsense. We didn’t allow them to do the things that they got away with in New York City. And that’s the same way I would approach it as governor.”

“Nick Fuentes is, in my opinion, a nut, but a dangerous one, and he has no place in the Republican Party,” Blakeman said. “Tucker Carlson is a big blowhard who has an issue with Jewish people, and it probably emanates from his chameleon-like personality. … He’s very unprincipled and I think he has biases that probably emanated from his youth.”

Blakeman said that if Mamdani fails to enforce the law, he would dispatch state police and national guard to do so. “We will not let any community be lawless, and I will not tolerate any acts of bigotry, antisemitism or racism in a state where I’m the governor.”

Asked about voices like Tucker Carlson and neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes who are working to mainstream antisemitic ideas in the Republican Party, Blakeman did not mince words in his condemnation.

“Nick Fuentes is, in my opinion, a nut, but a dangerous one, and he has no place in the Republican Party,” Blakeman said. “Tucker Carlson is a big blowhard who has an issue with Jewish people, and it probably emanates from his chameleon-like personality. … He’s very unprincipled and I think he has biases that probably emanated from his youth.”

At the same time, Blakeman argued that he sees most antisemitism in the United States coming from the left, pointing to the large-scale turn against Israel in the Democratic Party.

“We have a couple of nuts in our party, but certainly [they are the] vast minority, and in the Democratic Party, it seems to me that they have completely abandoned Israel and that they are a hotbed for antisemitic activities,” Blakeman said.

He predicted those trends will help his campaign capture a significant number of Jewish Democratic voters who “realize that the Democratic Party has become an extreme party that’s hostile to Israel and hostile to Jewish people.”

He said he feels it’s important for the Republican Party to have “a strong Jewish presence” and that he takes his responsibility in that role seriously, saying he wants to be a “role model” for other Jewish people to get involved in GOP politics.

“I am a strong supporter of Israel,” Blakeman said. “I am a Zionist and a proud Zionist.”

“It’s something that I don’t take lightly as being a leader and someone who is a Jew and in the Republican Party,” Blakeman said.

Blakeman said he’s established a strong record as an ally and supporter of Israel in Nassau County, building business ties to Israel, implementing anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation and signing friendship agreements with what he called Judea and Samaria — the biblical term preferred by the Israeli government for the West Bank — and the Shomron Regional Council, a council of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“I am a strong supporter of Israel,” Blakeman said. “I am a Zionist and a proud Zionist.”

He said he’s currently under contract to buy an apartment in Beit Shemesh, as an investment.

Asked about the role his Jewish faith has played in his time in office and public life, the Nassau County executive responded, “Everything that I do emanates from the strength that’s given to me by Hashem, by God. So I am very mindful that it’s only with God’s blessings that I have the strength to do what I’m doing.” 

“I ask for God’s blessings each and every day, and I pray every day, and I feel that having that spiritual connection with God is a very important part of my life,” he continued.

Blakeman said his campaign will focus on improving public safety, lowering prices for businesses and residents, making the state government more responsive and stopping the population flight from the state, issues he said are being driven by incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.

He framed Nassau County, under his leadership, as a counterpoint to those trends, pointing to the county’s low taxes and strong financial position. “If we can do that on the state level, I’m  sure people will be happy. They’ll want to do business here. They want to live here, and they will flourish and prosper.”

“I want to make people happy. I want them to be proud of New York. I want them to want to raise their children and their grandchildren,” Blakeman said. 

He said that his past victories in a Democratic-leaning county provide a model for winning statewide in deep-blue New York, arguing that he’s been able to reach populations that haven’t traditionally voted Republican, including Hispanic, Latino, Asian American, women and African American voters.

Asked about Mamdani’s victory in New York City, Blakeman said that Mamdani’s focus on affordability “struck a note with a lot of voters,” but New York City Republicans “didn’t have an adequate message with respect to that issue — and I do.”

Blakeman said he wants to create jobs and make the state more prosperous, rather than providing “a free bus ride or a handout,” spurring economic development and job creation in collaboration with the business community and unions.