A survey of Jewish voters shows 67 percent plan to vote for Joe Biden in November and 30 percent plan to vote for Donald Trump.
The numbers in the survey released Monday by the Jewish Electorate Institute broke the same way when voters were asked about President Trump’s performance: 67 percent said they disapprove and 30 percent said they approve.
The survey suggested gains for Trump among Jewish voters since 2016, when Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the vote to Trump’s 24 percent. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2012, won 30 percent of the Jewish vote, the highest for a Republican since the 1980s.
However, support among Trump voters appears to be relatively soft. Just 64 percent of the respondents who said they approve of Trump said they strongly approved, while 92 percent of those who disapproved said they strongly disapproved.
Respondents ranked Biden as better on handling a range of issues, including anti-Semitism and the rise of white nationalism, 67-26; the coronavirus pandemic, 66-24; security of the Jewish community, 55-29; and U.S.-Israel relations, 46-32.
Voters ranked healthcare, the economy and the response to the coronavirus as their most important issues. Lowest ranked out of 19 issues asked about in the poll were Israel, Iran and “Support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Nonetheless, 88 percent of respondents said they were pro-Israel. Analysts have long believed that Jewish voters rank Israel low as an electoral issue when they believe both nominees will pursue a pro-Israel policy.
The online survey of 810 voters was carried out Sept. 2-7 by the Garin Hart Yang research group. The Jewish Electorate Institute is nonpartisan, although its leadership is comprised almost entirely of Jews who have been active in Democratic politics.