Jewish voters, like most other American voters, are, by and large, “normal.” The same kitchen table issues that swayed huge swathes of voters also impacted them, but in some cases, they were affected in an outsized manner. The border, crime, inflation, drugs, the media, transgender issues, boys in girls sports, all played a role, but we will focus on three of those issues: the border, safety/security, and the media. 

Border safety and security issues were dominant issues for Jewish voters this cycle. Additionally significant was the mainstream media and its platforming of anti-Semitism as a feature, not a bug. 

The porousness of the border impacted all Americans and, as Republicans maintained on campaigns all across the country, every state is now a border state. Sanctuary cities now harbor untraceable individuals, including military-aged men from Muslim countries who arrived and were granted parole into the country by the Biden-Harris team in untold numbers, possibly millions. 

Jews were no different from other populations wondering why we were importing this particular brand of immigrant, but when hate crimes erupted out of these undocumented populations, those crimes were targeted disproportionately at Jews in cities across the country. Foreign funders of campus anti-Semitism may also have been behind large numbers of illegals arriving into the country with a mission to export Islamism. 

Certainly the opportunity exists, and it played out post-election in a Jewish neighborhood of sanctuary city Chicago when a North African Muslim from Mauritania shot at a Jewish man who was on his way to synagogue while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” He then turned his weapon on Chicago police officers who responded to a 911 call. 

The city’s mayor and the state’s governor, both far-left progressive Democrats, tried to cover up the details of the crime — both the identity of the victim and of the shooter — but the truth escaped their embarrassing efforts. These types of incidents occurred throughout the election cycle with directed immigrant-perpetrated crimes, some specifically targeting Jews some not, leading to an increased sense of insecurity among Jewish voters. 

The university encampments on prestigious campuses across the country doubtless led many Jews, especially students and their parents, to vote for Trump and for other Republicans. The palpable sense that not only were students unsafe on their own campuses, something that Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) highlighted effectively in television ads, but that university administrations, public and private, didn’t see fit to enforce President Trump’s Title VI provisions to ban discrimination on campuses because of someone’s Jewish faith. 

Administrators and their DEI hacks ignored the law, ignored their donors, and ignored their students while they paid gentle homage to free speech for free “Palestine.” The consequences for these campuses will be swift and brutal when budget time rolls around, but in the meantime, the Harris-Walz ticket suffered because they could not demonstrate moral rectitude simply by demanding protection of Jewish students and dispersal of pro-terrorism protesters. 

Perhaps the biggest loser, apart from Harris-Walz, is the mainstream media. Networks worked overtime as Harris campaign surrogate; anchors and hosts told voters, “don’t believe your lying eyes! Inflation is down, wages are up, gas prices are low, new goodies are coming from the Democrats.” But the reality to Jewish voters was harsh. 

The media did not report on campus activities accurately; instead pro-Hamas protesters were given sympathetic portrayals by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and network television leaders like MSNBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, etc. Indeed, headlines and lead news stories regularly reflected pro-demonstrator perspectives and demands, no matter how ludicrous they were. 

A Columbia University PhD student laughably demanded the university provide meal plan meals to students who illegally occupied Hamilton Hall, including gluten free options. The University of Chicago student encampment demands included all sorts of sexual equipment including Plan B pills and other accouterments. The obviously unserious nature of the protests was amplified by the media as incredibly serious, incredibly important, and a time for choosing.

Well, Jews chose. Preferring not to be referred to as perpetrators of genocide and Zionist scum, we voted for President Trump. Given the manner in which an incoming Trump administration will likely approach institutions of higher learning and the border moving forward, no doubt many more Jews will appreciate his team’s actions and vote Republican in the midterms and in 2028. 

Kamala Harris’s embarrassing inability to see clearly the issues that were obviously in front of every American’s eyes is why she lost. But the media’s concerted effort to turn a blind eye to that reality is an embarrassment on top of a humiliation. Jews saw the media’s gesticulations and acrobatic efforts to publish headlines that served terrorists, even in the wake of the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust. 

This was enough to give even the most dyed-in-the-wool Democrat pause. The reckoning that lies ahead for the mainstream media should be epic. If it is not, Jewish voters along with voters from all “traditionally Democrat” voting blocs will tune out and actively seek out the truth elsewhere. 

The words of the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller ring as true today as they did in 1946: 

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Jews were the canaries in the coal mine this election. We voted for Trump because the air in the mine was toxic. And the walls to the mine were caving in. We will continue to vote for Republicans when they see that Trump and his Party deliver on promises by securing the border, improving public safety, shutting down sanctuary cities, and finding ways to accommodate a media that has lost sight of its mission to deliver the news.  

Matt Brooks is CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Bonnie Glick was the Deputy Administrator/COO of USAID.