Norm Coleman, national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, at an RJC event in Las Vegas, Oct. 31, 2025. Credit: RJC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One of the pro-Israel students at the conference, Elliana Chriss, 20, a junior at Loyola University in Chicago, told JNS that \u201cwe try to spread the message of Israel and eliminate the false news out there, the groupthink ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve seen, especially on college campuses, is people afraid of not being seen as liberal enough, so they feed into this ideology and antisemitic rhetoric to fit in,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be very clear. Nazis are evil, and antisemitism is repulsive,\u201d Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), who is Jewish, said in his speech to the RJC that \u201cin our party, we don\u2019t give platforms to people who support Stalin and Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL.) told attendees that the United States and Israel share the same values\u2014and the same enemies.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018America first\u2019 does not mean America only,\u201d he told the attendees. \u201cThere is no question Israel is our ally in the region. We will stand with them, because the people who hate Israel, they hate America too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL.) said that Republican leaders need to explain the importance of supporting Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you sit people down and you explain the value of having the relationship with Israel and the importance of Israel in the Middle East, I think people get it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, told reporters that Democrats failed to rein in their party\u2019s anti-Israel wing until it was too late.<\/p>\n
He singled out the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, state representative Zohan Mamdani, who is leading in the polls despite accusing Israel of genocide and initially refusing to condemn the phrase \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d which many Jews see as a call to violence against them. Mamdani has also said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested if he comes to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans have a cold, the Democrats have a fever and the Republicans are fighting the cold,\u201d Fleischer said. \u201cDemocrats aren\u2019t fighting their fever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not afraid to call it out, because you have to call it out from a moral point of view, from a jewish point of view, and I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s so small inside the Republican Party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A Jewish Democratic activist from Maryland, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, told JNS that she is concerned about Mamdani\u2019s popularity in New York City, but \u201cthe majority of Democratic officials still support Israel\u2019s absolute strong right to exist as a Jewish democratic nation that is free from terrorism and where people of all backgrounds can have a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the RJC\u2019s banquet Saturday night, Trump thanked the group for its support in a taped message greeted by loud applause. RJC and its super PAC spent $19.7 million<\/a> during the 2024 elections, concentrating its efforts in the seven swing states that Trump swept en route to winning a second term in the White House.<\/p>\n\u201cThe RJC helped ensure that we won the highest percentage of Jewish votes\u201d in decades, Trump said.<\/p>\n
A post-election analysis<\/a> by the Pew Research Center gave Trump 35% of the Jewish vote, while Democrat Kamala Harris got 63%. That 28-point gap was the lowest since 1984, when Democrat Walter Mondale bested Republican Ronald Reagan among Jewish voters by 26 points, 57% to 31%.<\/p>\nBut the differences in support were within the margins of error, senior Pew researcher Hannah Hartig told JNS.<\/p>\n
The cheers for Trump this weekend contrasted with the boos he received a decade earlier when he first appeared before the RJC as a presidential candidate. At the time, he told the audience then that it wasn\u2019t \u201cgoing to support me, because I don\u2019t want your money\u201d for his campaign.<\/p>\n
At the same gathering, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who at the time was also running for the GOP presidential nomination, said that Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant stance was \u201cdestroying the Republican Party\u2019s chance to win an election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about those comments now, Graham said that \u201che got elected\u201d and \u201cwell, I think you gotta like it, because people wanted things to change. They saw him as being disrupted more good than bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to Israel, how can you complain? If you got a problem with Jerusalem being the capital of the State of Israel, take it up with God,\u201d Graham said. \u201cAll I can say is: \u2018President Trump\u2019s been one of the best, if not the best president for the State of Israel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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