US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Erica Dischino

Despite losing Tuesday night’s US presidential election in resounding fashion, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris maintained a commanding national lead among Jewish voters according to exit polling, undermining narratives that Democrats would suffer an unprecedented erosion of support among the traditionally liberal voting bloc. 

Amid ongoing furor over a historic surge in antisemitism across the US and the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, a Fox News exit poll, conducted in partnership with the Associated Press, found that Harris still won 66 percent of Jewish voters, staving off a substantial collapse among the demographic.

Meanwhile, Harris’s Republican opponent, former US President Donald Trump, garnered 32 percent support among Jewish voters, the exit poll found.

However, the same data of all 50 states in the US showed that Trump, who won the presidential contest, won a remarkable 45 percent of Jewish voters in New York state, compared to 30 percent in 2020.

Harris’s performance among Jewish voters nearly mimicked incumbent President Joe Biden’s performance during the 2020 election, in which he won the demographic by a margin of 68-30 percent.

However, Harris notably underperformed with Jewish voters compared to historical averages. In presidential elections dating back to 1968, Jewish voters have preferred the Democratic nominee over the Republican nominee by an average of 71 percent to 26 percent, according to Jewish Virtual Library. 

Trump experienced a 50 percent increase in support from Jewish voters in New York, the exit polling found, representing a historic performance by a Republican presidential nominee in the deep blue state. 

A separate exit poll from Edison Research, which conducts the National Election Pool, found that 79 percent of Jews said they voted Democratic, compared to 21 percent who voted Republican. That poll surveyed voters in only 10 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. The survey notably did not include New York, home to the largest American Jewish community.

In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, New York transformed into a flashpoint in cultural battles regarding antisemitism. Student protesters marched throughout Columbia University chanting slogans calling for the destruction of Israel. Several public schools in New York City also lectured students that Israel was committing “genocide” and “apartheid.” Meanwhile, US Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, embarked on a months-long political campaign against the Jewish state, accusing it of enacting an “indiscriminate” bombing campaign in Gaza and exaggerating the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. 

New York also experienced a surge in antisemitic hate crimes in the year since the Hamas-led onslaught, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

Maury Litwack, founder and CEO of the Teach Coalition, argued that the results of Tuesday’s election are reflective of frustration stemming from rising antisemitism across the country. 

“Red wave? Blue wave? How about a push back on antisemitism wave. I can point to numerous examples of candidates taking terrible positions on antisemitism or staying silent on antisemitism that have cost them their races this cycle,” Litwack wrote on X/Twitter.

In the months leading up to election day, polling data and experts gave mixed indications on whether Jews would exit the Democratic Party en masse to cast ballots for Trump. Some polls suggested that Jews were set to support Trump in record numbers. Other surveys indicated that Jewish voters were sticking to their liberal roots by backing Harris.

Initial data does not appear to support the notion that Jews across the country rebuked the Democratic Party, although some polls indicate that many Jews in specific localities turned to the Republicans in numbers not seen in years.