Sam Markstein | American View

We're into the primaries and speeding toward election day as Israel and anti-Semitism are being [music] tossed around like political football. Republicans have been making inroads with American Jews who have traditionally favored Democrats, but is the predicted blue wave [music] this year going to drown that momentum? We'll speak with Sam Markstein, the national political director for the Republican Jewish Coalition as we get the American view. Sam Markstein from the Republican Jewish Coalition, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Uh we're speeding through the primaries and getting toward election day here, but there's been so much that's developed in terms of politics and Israel and anti-Semitism and the American Jewish community. Kind of set the stage for us here. Where where are we right now in all of this? >> Thanks for having me on this morning, Mike. So, yeah, it's a table set a little bit here. President Trump in 2024 received the highest share of the national Jewish vote since President Reagan. And especially if you look back at the results from the '92 election, H.W. Bush only got 11% of the Jewish vote. President Trump closed in on 40% of the Jewish vote and that's including in key battleground states that helped to deliver him the presidency, places like Nevada and Arizona and Georgia and Michigan and Pennsylvania with sizable Jewish communities, many of them, almost a majority of them went for President Trump in 2024. We've seen an acceleration of that movement away from the Democratic Party in the Jewish community here in the states, especially in those key battleground states cycle after cycle, and we do anticipate that that will continue to be the case in 2026 and 2028 and beyond. >> We look at some names like Abdullah Said out of Michigan, other troubling characters in the Imam Donnie era, we'll call it now. You know, how much is the RJC focused [snorts] on these particular candidates and how much attention can it really focus given, you know, they're always finite resources. Where where where's the attention being drawn right now? >> Well, you also left out of there a Graham Platner, Mr. Nazi tattoo man from up in Maine. Uh, but you're right. There are a growing number of these radical uh communists, I would call them, in states, whether it's New York, where they just won a bunch of primaries in New York in the primaries a few months ago, New Jersey across the river, Pennsylvania with Chris Rabb, Colorado with Mel King Ross, and you just like you said, uh Michigan, which is the kit center of the political battlefield for us and for the Senate majority. Chuck Schumer cannot become Senate majority leader again without holding onto the key swing state of Michigan. And Democrats in that state, um uh less than a majority, I'll point out, I think it was about 48% selected Abdullah Said as their nominee. And just to put this in perspective for your viewers, this is someone who said that he had quote an obligation to follow Sharia law until the day that he dies. He's called the government of the Jewish state as evil as Hamas. He struggled to say that Israel uh has a right to exist as a Jewish state. And most troubling for me, anyway, of all of these is that he actually empathized with the terrorist who drove a a truck through a Jewish school uh synagogue at Temple Israel in the suburbs of Detroit to try and murder as many people and school children as he possibly could. And Abdullah Said's quote on that was hurt people do hurt things. So, in reality, the rabbi up there called it what it was, offensive. The Jewish community in the Detroit suburbs in large numbers voted for Haley Stevens by a margin of almost 30% when she only carried Oakland County by about five or six points. So, there really is an opportunity here for the RJC, for the Rogers campaign, and for our allies in Michigan to move more Jewish voters not just into the Republican column for future elections, but to secure victory for Mike Rogers this November. >> How did we get here? I mean, Democrats point the fingers at Republicans saying that they've lost their their way on Israel. Republicans will point the the fingers at Democrats saying they've lost their way on pretty much everything else. I mean, have we just kind of lost the the middle ground here? Is it is it just gone? >> I don't think so. I think you've seen Republicans time after time in the Congress and from the White House with President Trump, who again is the most pro-Israel president US history, Republicans continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder behind the Jewish state. You saw this just a couple of weeks ago when now loser Thomas Massie put up this bill to defund aid to Israel, and you had over 100 House Democrats vote for it. Not a single Republican voted with Thomas Massie on that bill. And that's kind of been the consistent theme here is that Democrats continue to cave and appease this far-left anti-Israel base of their party, which is not proving to be good politics or good policy. And so, I think it's a big mistake for the them. I think it's going to cost them with middle-of-the-road average American voters in these key battleground states because they truly do believe that, you know, support for Israel is in America's best national security interests, and we can get into more of that if if you'd like. But, I do believe that the Democrats are making a big mistake, whether it's from Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries, whether it's started with Mondaire in New York and appeasing and coddling him, or now rallying the troops around Abdul El-Sayed, I think they're going to be in for a big reckoning come November. >> I mean, is it just in your opinion, is it just a complete misreading of the the electoral landscape? I mean, they're they're getting these ideas from somewhere. I mean, one would presume they're getting it from their their voters. Are they living in Twitter world? I mean, where where do you see it? >> Yeah, I think number one that Trump derangement syndrome has melted their brains. I think no matter what the president does, they're going to be in opposition to, which again, he's done a lot of good things that are very popular for the country. And just opposing, opposing, opposing has left them in the political wilderness. They don't have the White House, they don't have the Senate, and they don't have the House, and there's a reason for that. And so, I think just being perpetually opposed to anything that Donald Trump does has been silly, and you've seen the results of that over the last decade. But as far as where they're getting these ideas from, yes, I I think that in a lot of these places, in places like Michigan as an example, the Democratic Party is very weak. They're kind of a paper tiger, and they rely a lot on these consultant classes, and they're way too driven by the polling as opposed to actually showing some leadership. What voters truly want, Mike, in this country is they want leaders who will stand for the truth and for what's right, and to actually tell their voters sometimes hard truths. And sometimes that's not always what they want to hear, but that's what leadership is. It's having a backbone and showing people the right and true path, not always caving to the mob or the loudest voices on the fringe, which is what you're seeing the Democrats do. And Republicans have taken those lessons very, very seriously, and we are actively opposing the fringe on our side. And from the RJC's perspective, beyond Thomas Massie, we have a storied and long history of taking on these family debates, let's call them nicely, in our own ranks, whether it was Steve King in Iowa, or Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, or John Hostettler in Indiana, or Bob Good in Virginia, and the list goes on and on, and you'd be hard-pressed to find on the Democratic side groups that are supposed to be representing, you know, American Jews and and liaising with their party leadership having the same record of accomplishment that we have at the RJC is actually taking on these tough fights and winning and continuing to remain vigilant and on message and making sure that candidates that support our principles and values have the support they need to win. And we've made that a top priority for us as we have this uh ongoing uh family dispute. >> Well, let's talk about that family dispute that because the Republican family, just like the Democratic family, when it comes to Congress at least is getting older and there are new generations coming in. And the Republicans, specifically, new generations, when you look at the polls, say there's not as much support for Israel as there has been traditionally. And that's going to be something that you and the RJC and other pro-Israel organizations are going to be dealing with. So, when we look at the Democrats, I mean, it may seem now it's kind of orthodoxy, mainstream to be anti-Israel. Is there a fear amongst the RJC, amongst pro-Israel Republicans, that sooner rather than later you're going to be facing a similar landscape where the Thomas Massies of the world, the Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world are not the outliers, but are more centered within the party? >> Well, I'll disabuse that notion right now. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Green will never be the center of the Republican Party. They are absolute maniac outliers who have been summarily defeated and can enjoy their retirement, you know, up in Maine. I think that, generally speaking, I've seen polling all across the spectrum on this. I've seen young MAGA supporters are actually more strong on foreign policy and national security than non-MAGA young voters. In fact, MAGA young voters love Israel. They love what the president's doing against Iran. They want to make sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon and that we do have a muscular foreign policy. So, I think that there is a strain of neo-isolationism in the party and there is something to be said for that. I think that generally speaking younger voters who grew up during the global war on terror are skeptical generally of foreign entanglements, of alliances including amongst our friends. But I think if you can make the case to them that the reason why we have these alliances is beneficial for America's national security and America's future, you can win that argument very easily. To me, the challenge is going to be pushing back against this poisonous slop that's fed to them over and over and over again on the social media apps and beyond where they're just fed this nonsense and lies about what's actually going on. So, what's the expression that, you know, before the truth can put its of pants on the lie has got around the world? That's basically what we're dealing with here and we have to get better at it. There's no question about it. >> Does that involve then trying to win the argument or does that involve shutting the door and and dead bolting it and not letting them in? I mean, where where where's the strategy going forward? >> So, to from my perspective, just like a sovereign nation without borders is not a sovereign nation, a conservative movement without borders is no conservative movement and you're seeing what the consequences are on the Democratic side when you have Chuck Schumer and the leadership saying, "Yeah, we can't wait to have this big tent and everyone's welcome." Well, everyone's welcome, Chuck? What about the communists? What about the anti-Semites? What about the Hassan Pikers of the world who's, you know, the top surrogate for your leading Senate candidate in critical swing state like Michigan. For us, for the RJC and for the Republican Party, we are going to have those tough fights in that debate. We're going to say, "Listen, there is a line that you cannot cross." And that includes, you know, bigotry, anti-Semitism and the like. And so, we're going to have that argument. We're going to win that debate. We're going to continue to stay vigilant and push back on the forces that want to divide the party for their own, you know, personal ambition or or other nefarious purposes. So, it's it's an issue that I am very proud that the Republican Party has taken very seriously. I like to compare it to having a a slight sore throat while while Democrats have a full-blown 105° fever that their immune system was very slow to catch up to. The Republican immune system has kicked in and kicked in very strong and very hard to make sure that the party remains a party that is not just friendly to but actually elevates and promotes and loves American Jews and people that are pro-Israel in this country. >> So, that provides a natural segue then because one specific Republican Jew in Congress embattled right now and facing strong accusations of domestic violence. I'm speaking of a representative Max Miller, close ally of President Trump. Apparently, the White House, at least according to reports, urged him to stay in the race here. So, the RJC, I'll give you credit. You you've called it out within the Republican Party when there have been issues with character issues, values issues. Where does the RJC stand on on Congressman Miller heading into the general election? >> Yeah, so very briefly, it's obviously very serious and we take note of it and we understand that there's going to be an ethics committee investigation into this and I think the top line for us is that we're not going to prejudge before we have all of the facts available to us. And so, ultimately, the voters in Ohio will decide whether they want Mr. Miller to continue to represent them in the house. But yeah, we don't have all the facts just yet and we're not going to prejudge and we're going to see how the process and due process plays out here. >> Speaking of gathering everybody together, once again, the RJC summit in Las Vegas, the annual event, is coming up at the end of this month slash at the start of September on that crossover on the calendar. This is kind of this is heading into the the election once again here a non-presidential election year, but obviously immensely consequential. What's what's the game plan heading into the summit? What is the message you want to get across? >> So, once again, we're going to be welcoming Republican Jewish activists, donors, key people in the community from across the country over a thousand strong to Las Vegas at the Venetian for what we like to affectionately call the kosher cattle call for the midterm election. This year we're going to be honoring America's 250th birthday as well as memorializing and honoring the legacy the the tremendous legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham. We are dedicating the summit in his honor and we will be presenting the Lindsey Graham Statesman Award for the first time to a worthy recipient to be announced and we intend to do that year after year for the next however many years we do this. Forever hopefully and it's going to be an amazing event as you've been there before. We're going to have key opinion leaders, stakeholders, members of Congress, governors, senators, cabinet officials and beyond and so it's going to be an amazing event and we're very excited. The dates are August 30th and 31st in Las Vegas and if anybody is still interested in getting a last minute ticket, they can go to rjcvegas.com. >> Yeah, I 24 News will be there as we are every year. You know, Lindsey Graham irreplaceable in terms of pro-Israel stalwart, in terms of expanding the Abraham Accords, in terms of backing American Jewry. He is irreplaceable, so I'm not going to ask how you replace him, but do you feel there is that that flag bearer, that message carrier within the Senate who will kind of take up the mantle that that Senator Graham leaves behind? >> Yeah, like you said, he really is so I don't think anybody will ever be able to fill Lindsey Graham's shoes, but I bet his sister is going to try damn hard to do that. Um Lindsey Graham is on the record from 2015, I believe, saying that she's better than him and that if there's ever somebody who could, um you know, represent America better than him, it would be Darlene Graham in South Carolina, uh who's now the the appointed senator. She just came in first place last night in the uh special Republican uh primary in South Carolina. There'll be a runoff again in 2 weeks uh at the end of August. And so we have endorsed Darlene Graham. We encourage folks to support Darlene Graham. Um she's obviously a different person than Lindsey Graham, but he had more trust in her than anybody on the planet, and so we're very confident that she'll be able to step in for him in that way. However, as you know, there's lots of other members of the Senate who we at the RJC and the American Jewish community and people who believe in our values and principles lean on all of the time. Many of them are coming to Vegas, uh and we're looking forward to hearing from them. >> S- Senator Graham, the new Senator Graham, Darlene Graham, I mean, she's talked during the campaign, this brief campaign period that she's had about mainly domestic issues. I don't think she's expressed an opinion yet on foreign policy, at least none that I detected. Have there been any early conversations with her about her her philosophy? Have there Has there even been time to have those conversations? >> Our understanding is that she will be a stalwart supporter of our issues just like her brother, the late great Senator Lindsey Graham was, and we have no reason to doubt that. She has been uh amazing. I don't actually don't know how she has the strength to carry on the way she has. It's incredible, her resilience, her grit, her determination to step in for her brother now that he's gone. Uh the president obviously has full confidence in her. President Trump uh was one of the main reasons why uh she got in the race. He urged her to run uh for the full term even when she wasn't really sure herself if she wanted to do that given, you know, the loss that she had just suffered for herself and her family. So, a really incredible person uh and we have full confidence in her ability to step in for Senator Lindsey Graham and continue the work that he worked so diligently on, so hard on. And uh he he used to say at the RJC events, you know, "Work as hard as you can because the future of your country depends on it." And he means he meant that and I know that uh Senator Darlene Graham feels the same way. >> I I've often wondered this and I guess it's time to ask it. You know, there are centrist uh uh Jewish organizations uh from the Democratic side. There are common issues certainly to work on within American Jewry and just as Democrats and Republicans in Congress and and in other uh houses work together on on common issues, is the RJC partnering even behind the scenes, if you can admit it, uh with any uh uh centrist or or left-wing Jewish organizations to work on common problems or or again, has the ground just grown as it just shaken too much that you you just can't reach the other side anymore? >> No, to to answer your question, yes, there is a uh unprecedented level of political hackery that goes on uh between the two sides. However, uh we do have common ground and we do have common ground maybe more often than folks know about or care to admit. And I'll give you one example. Uh so, pretty quickly after the October 7th massacre uh in Israel at the end of 2023, uh we worked directly with groups like you're talking about to help show the really gruesome footage that has not been released to the public out of respect to the families and the victims, but really truly awful footage of the attack that day. A lot of it recorded on Hamas GoPros and on Facebook lives and and uh it was really disgusting to to watch these these animals gleefully, you know, executing children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children and you know, lighting grandparents on fire and the massacres that occurred all over the kibbutzim, we helped to show that footage to members of Congress, to key members of their teams and staffers on Capitol Hill. And so we do come together more often than people might know about to do the hard work that's necessary to remain strong and unified on on the on the really important issues. Yes, we're going to argue about candidates, we're going to go over fiercely at each other during campaigns, we're going to try to win these seats, you know, across the country and these key states like Michigan and beyond, but when it comes down to some of these other issues where politics should not interfere, we respect that deeply and we do engage when appropriate. >> RJ C has noted exit polls and other indicators showing that the share of American Jewry moving away from the Democratic Party toward the Republican Party has inched up several percentage points over the last few years. Obviously, it's an ongoing battle, so to speak. It's not going to turn around on a dime, nothing really does, but the RJC has noted its progress in doing so. All of the polling, all of the surveys show to some extent that this is going to be a Democratic year. To what extent we're not sure, nobody really knows, but the polling certainly shows that. Are you afraid that momentum will be lost this year? >> Not afraid at all. I think in these very important states, these very important key races, and let's take Michigan because that seems to be the biggest race, center of the political battlefield for us, certainly. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed were engaged in a very contentious primary. El-Sayed got about 48 and a half percent of the Democratic Party vote, which meant that more than half of his own party didn't want him. Then you look at the really numbers don't lie on this cuz I know some of your other guests will say, "Look at our exit poll. We cooked this one up and it looks really good for Democrats." Any Democrat consultant, pollster that talks about the Jewish community that truly is going to go on camera and say that they haven't seen any movement towards Republicans is just full of it. They're not telling the truth. They haven't looked at the precinct level data. The actual vote share numbers, the raw vote totals in these key Jewish communities is what actually matters, not what someone on a phone call on an exit poll has to say. And so, let's look at those numbers specifically. In Oakland County, which is one of the biggest counties in Michigan, suburban Detroit, just north of the city, there are some key municipalities in these towns, including places like West Bloomfield, Southfield, Oak Park, places like that that moved 5 to 10 points towards President Trump from 2020 in 2024. And we monitored that, knocked doors there, had canvassers, paid effort to turn out the vote for President Trump in 2024. What I saw on the primary, in the Democratic primary, was Haley Stevens winning those areas 2-1. 60 to 30, 65 35, depending on where you were, and that was a huge delta between what she was actually winning the main Oakland County writ large by, by about five or six points. She outperformed her own county top lines in the Jewish community by about 25 points. So, that to me says that there is a big opportunity for the RJC and Mike Rogers campaign to move more Jewish voters to the Republican column come November. So, yes, it's going to be historically, it's always a challenging year for a midterm election for the party in power, but I think amongst the Jewish community, many American Jews, they might not say it so much on the record, They might not say it so much in polling. There are a lot of them who are either going to stay home because they don't like what the Democratic Party is doing or there's going to be a silent majority of them that are going to hold their nose if they have to, but support a Republican this year including in key places like Michigan. And you're seeing drip drip of that on the record. I mean, there's been many reports of major Jewish donors who are withholding funds not just from the El Sayed campaign, but from the DNC and from the committees. And you had the DNC, the Democratic National Committee having to put up their own headquarters here in Washington as collateral to take out a loan because they're so so indebted and they have so much campaign debt. And so I see beyond the political end of these things, they're going to be strapped for resources because they're pissing off the Democrats that is a lot of their major contributors and major supporters and those happen to be some of them in the Jewish community. And so I do think that it's twofold. They're pissing off the voters in these districts and scaring them to a large extent. Jewish voters are scared in a lot of these places, Jewish Democrats and specifically because they feel like they can't even go to political events. You had the Attorney General in Michigan, Nessel, who's Jewish saying she didn't feel safe going to the Democratic nominating convention in Michigan. I mean, where this isn't 1930s Germany, it's 2026 Michigan and you have Jewish elected officials statewide who are afraid to go to their own party convention. I mean, when you think about it, it's a really mind-blowing and that's what's happening on the ground politically, but also financially for these political campaigns, the money is drying up for them and I think that's going to have a big effect as well. >> Sam Markstein, national political director for the Republican Jewish Coalition. We'll see you in Vegas in a few weeks. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us. >> Thanks, Mike. See you in Vegas. Always a pleasure. >> And we will talk to you again next week on American view.