Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s uptick in support from Jewish voters is part of a “realignment” happening among voters, as the voting bloc is living in dangerous times.
Following Trump’s victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, in which Fox News host Harris Faulkner said Trump may have gotten “as much as 40% more of the Jewish vote” this election cycle, Stefanik cited the work the former president conducted during his first term in the White House to support Israel. The Republican congresswoman argued that Trump’s work contrasts greatly against the Biden-Harris administration, which was in power during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack and the subsequent rampant antisemitism displayed on college campuses in the United States.
“This is really unprecedented chaos and catastrophe, so people are paying attention to these national security issues,” Stefanik said on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus. “And what we saw in college campuses with the skyrocketing of antisemitism and the failure of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to condemn that and show strong moral leadership, compared to President Trump, who put in an executive order to expand Title VI protections for Jewish students. We know that President Trump is going to combat antisemitism on Day One and hold those higher education institutions accountable. Obviously, the voters know that as well.”
Stefanik said the Republican Party is “very optimistic” that it will expand its majority in the House of Representatives after reclaiming White House and Senate control. She also noted how Trump “did better” in some counties compared to the 2020 election, adding that it is “extraordinary” that the president-elect won the popular vote for the first time in three campaigns.
Part of Trump’s key to victory, Stefanik argued, was how Trump opted to “lean in” on his policy rather than shun it when receiving criticism from the press. She added that the Democratic Party’s “failed policies and radicalization” failed to resonate with voters, whereas Trump’s focus on the economy and border security carried him over the finish line.
In Michigan, a state Trump flipped after losing it in the 2020 presidential election, he became the first major presidential candidate to visit the Arab American community in Dearborn, during which he expressed a desire to “have peace” in the world. His comment was made amid growing turmoil within the Middle East, which sparked to a greater extent after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
After Trump won the election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the president-elect for his victory, which he deemed “history’s greatest comeback.”
