Jewish Dems face dilemma, as anti-Israel candidates gain ground in party primaries

(Oct. 26, 2026 / JNS)

From Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Chris Rabb in Philadelphia to Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York City, Democratic primary voters nominated candidates who accused Israel of “genocide,” forcing Jews to choose between backing nominees whose views they think odious and abandoning the party that has long shared their values.

Less than two weeks before Election Day, political activists told JNS that it’s still too early to know what impact these candidates, should they be elected on Nov. 3, will have on the Democratic Party’s traditional support for Israel.

“We are in the middle of the battle,” Democratic consultant Joel Rubin told JNS. “It’s like the third quarter of a football game. You can’t really say you’ve won, even if you’re ahead. You can’t say you’ve lost even if you’re behind.”

Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, acknowledged the high-profile wins of members of the Democratic Socialists of America and others who have been increasingly critical of Israel after Oct. 7.

Despite victories by El-Sayed in Michigan’s Senate primary, Rabb winning the nomination for an open Philadelphia congressional seat and Chevalier ousting pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Soifer said that most Democratic candidates on this year’s congressional ballot continue to support the Jewish state.

She told JNS that the JDCA endorsed 171 pro-Israel Democrats this year—its largest number ever.

“In the general election, there will be 468 Democrats on the ballot for the Senate and the House,” Soifer told JNS. “There are 10 to 15 of those 468 Democrats running whose views on Israel are so far to the left that I would say they are not aligned with the majority of Jewish Americans.”

“We’re talking about a handful of candidates,” she said.

Pro-Israel Democrats won their share of primary races against critics of Israel. Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), who ousted Cori Bush two years ago, beat her again. Maryland state representative Adrian Boafo won the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Michigan state senator Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, won the Democratic primary over two anti-Israel candidates to succeed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), who narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the Senate primary.

“It could have been worse,” said Guy Ziv, professor of Israel studies at American University and associate director of its Center for Israel Studies.

“It’s a mixed bag, right?” he told JNS. “In some places, the establishment candidate won and in others, the progressives prevailed. I don’t think we can draw any definitive conclusion from the primary results.”

Siena University polls showed a drop in Jewish support for congressional Democrats. Asked this month which congressional candidate they would support for the House, 55% of Jewish respondents said the Democrat and 41% said the Republican. But asked in 2022 which party they wanted to control the House, 79% said the Democrats and 18% the Republicans.

At the same time, Jews also saw anti-Israel people, like commentator Tucker Carlson, gaining visibility in the Republican Party. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been an outspoken critic of Carlson, whom he denounced before the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“We also have to keep in mind that the Republican Party has fielded candidates that have made problematic statements themselves using tropes that should make the Jewish community nervous,” Ziv told JNS.

Julie Roginsky, a Democratic consultant and strategist, told JNS that “you are being pressed from both sides.”

“You’ve got the Republican Party that is obviously trending in a dangerous direction and you’ve got the Democratic Party that is trending in a dangerous direction,” she said.

Of concern to pro-Israel Democrats is that critics of Israel could wield disproportionate influence if the party wins one or both chambers of Congress, the same way the far-right Freedom Caucus has gummed up the works in the current GOP-controlled House.

To gain the speakership in 2023, then-Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy made a deal with the Freedom Caucus that made it easy for the House to oust him later that year. Then the party’s most conservative members blocked a series of successors until Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected three weeks later.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America this year withheld its endorsement from three Senate nominees whose races could determine whether the party wins a majority—El-Sayed, Troy Jackson in Maine and Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

All three have accused Israel of “genocide,” and the Michigan Jewish community has voiced consistent concern toward El-Sayed’s repeated anti-Israel rhetoric. El-Sayed included Carlson in a campaign ad and campaigned with far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.

“Just those three races could determine control of the Senate,” Sam Markstein, political director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS.

The RJC believes that El-Sayed is “the most antisemitic U.S. candidate to ever seek a Senate seat,” he said.

“They’re kowtowing to these extremists,” Markstein told JNS. “This has gone from a 100-degree fever to a 105-degree fever. It is a full-blown infection now in the Democratic Party.”

Soifer questioned how much power El-Sayed would have as one of 100 senators. “He is not, in any situation, going to be leading the Democratic Party on any issue, especially not Israel,” she told JNS.

A Democratic-controlled House is more likely, while the Senate appears very much up for grabs. Inside Elections predicts the party, which needs to win only three GOP-held House districts to capture a majority, picking up 10 to 20 seats.

A handful of Israel critics could withhold their votes from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the front-runner to become the next speaker, unless he backs off his strong support of Israel.

“A lot of this depends on how big the margins are,” Roginsky told JNS. “If they’re very close, these handful of Democrats get together to pressure Hakeem Jeffries to take a particular position in the caucus.”

That means, according to Democratic activist Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, that the party has to run up the score in November.

“It is extremely important for Democrats not just to win but to win big,” she told JNS.

Even then, the intra-party squabble over Israel will last at least until the Democrats pick their next presidential nominee, Rubin told JNS.

“This is going to play out through the 2028 primaries for president,” he said. “To me, that’s going to be the real determinant of where the party is heading on these issues.”

The pro-Israel Democrats interviewed by JNS said that the defeat of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this month’s election could quiet some of the anti-Israel rhetoric among members of their party.

“Even Jewish Democrats who are very pro-Israel tend to want to see a different prime minister and have very little patience with the idea that Netanyahu could return to power,” Mizrahi said.

She told JNS that congressional Democrats would find it hard to work with Netanyahu, as they are “completely frustrated” with his “inaction” on issues that concern them, such as violence that they attribute to “settlers” in Judea and Samaria.

Roginsky said that Netanyahu upended the longstanding bipartisan consensus on Israel because of his willingness to make “common cause with MAGA and with the most extremist Christian nationalists in this country.”

A self-described “staunch pro-Israel Zionist,” Roginsky said that “Netanyahu has been a complete and utter disaster for Israel and a complete and utter disaster for diaspora Jews. He cannot lose fast enough.”

In the end, Trump’s policies, and the Republicans’ obsequiousness toward them, will overcome any qualms voters have about some of the Democratic nominees, Soifer said.

“I think the silence and complicity of Republicans in the 2026 election cycle to Donald Trump’s extreme and dangerous agenda is something they will all come to regret when Democrats win back control of the House and Senate,” she said.

“The American people are sick of it. They’ve had enough of it, and it’s time for this administration to be put in check and held accountable,” she said. “The Democrats are ready to do that.”