New poll has Clinton crushing Trump with Florida Jews
Democratic nominee is ahead 43 points among Sunshine State Jews, but Republican Jewish Coalition says ‘Democrats should be panicked’
WASHINGTON — A poll released Friday shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by a crushing 43 points with Florida Jews. The battleground state, which is roughly five percent Jewish, is critical to the general election, and could potentially hold the power to shift the balance of electoral college votes.
The Democratic nominee has 66 percent of Jewish support in Florida, whereas her Republican counterpart has 23 percent, the survey found. Moreover, it said Clinton has a 24-point lead in favorability over Trump, as she has a 57 percent favorable rating to his 33 percent.
The poll, conducted by GBA Strategies, a progressive firm, was performed by telephone survey from August 4 through 8. The firm’s founder, Jim Gernstein, also does polling for the Washington-based advocacy group J Street.
Via random selection from a Florida voter file of individuals who have “distinctive Jewish names” or who “self-identify as Jewish,” the poll’s sample size was 500 voters. It’s margin of error was ±4.4 percentage points.
The poll also found that a majority of its Jewish respondents — 51 percent — support the Iran nuclear agreement, and 75 percent strongly oppose Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslim entry into the United States.
Other major issues that Jews said would influence their voting decisions this fall were the economy, terrorism and the Supreme Court.
Upon the poll’s release, the Republican Jewish Coalition issued a statement claiming it boded well for the progress they would make from the last presidential election in 2012.
“This recently released poll of Jewish voters in Florida confirms again that Jews continue to flee the Democrat Party in greater and greater numbers,” the RJC’s executive director Matt Brooks said.
“Due to President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s policies, voters have seen the world fall into chaos, as well as the erosion of our close alliance with Israel. Four years after President Obama received the lowest amount of support of any Democrat from Jewish voters in decades, Democrats should be panicked to see Hillary Clinton falling even further behind.”
Four years ago, Obama received 68 percent of the Jewish vote in the Florida, whereas his Republican challenger Mitt Romney received 31 percent. Overall, Obama lost nine percent of the Jewish vote from 2008 to 2012, going from 78 percent to 69 percent.
One month ago, the National Jewish Democratic Council launched a super PAC, Jews for Progress, to target Jewish voters in swing states — like Colorado, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania — where “a shift in the Jewish vote could turn the tide in the presidential election.”
While most recent polls show Clinton ahead overall in the Sunshine State, they do not have her leading by anywhere near as wide of a margin she enjoys with Jews. The RealClearPolitics polling average has Clinton up 4.5 points.
