FAUX PRO-ISRAEL J STREET’S CANDIDATES WON SOME, BUT LOST SOME IMPORTANT ONES
There were a few defeats for pro-Israel candidates. One was the re-election of Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. Shaheen won by three points against Republican challenger Scott Brown.
Shaheen was a J Street endorsed candidate which doesn’t mean that’s why she won, it just gives an indication of how anti-Israel she is. The same is true for Michelle Nunn for Senate in Georgia, and Mark Udall in Colorado. Those two were also backed by J Street. But those two lost to Republicans backed by the Republican Jewish Coalition by nearly ten points and five points, respectively. David Perdue won in Georgia and Cory Gardner won in Colorado. J Street also backed Iowa’s loser, Bruce Braley.
The Republican Jewish Coalition sent out a press release deservedly crowing that for the 15 races in which both the RJC and J Street backed candidates and in which the results had been certified, 11 winners were endorsed by RJC, and only 3 of J Street’s candidates were elected.
In addition to the races already mentioned, the RJC-J Street showdown yielded RJC favored winners Susan Collins in her race to be Maine’s senator, Carlos Curbelo who defeated Joe Garcia to represent Florida’s 26th district in the U.S. Congress, David Young who defeated Staci Appel to become the congressman of Iowa’s 3rd district, and Mike Bost who defeated Bill Enyart to represent the 12th district of Illinois.
In New Hampshire’s First district, Frank Guinta defeated Carol Shea-Porter for the congressional seat, Elise Stafanik defeated J Street’s endorsed Asron Woolf to become the congress member from New York’s 21st district, Tom Reed defeated Martha Robertson for New York’s 23rd district, and Evan Jenkins bested Nick Rahall to become the congressman representing West Virginia’s 3rd district.
Only victors in races for the House of Representatives in the 5th district of Connecticut, in Florida’s 2nd and in New Hampshire’s 2nd district were backed by J Street in contests against RJC-backed candidates.
A bad day for faux-pro-Israel Americans, a banner day for true pro-Israel Americans.