Jewish voters express growing isolation from both major political parties

From Houston Public Media:

The 2026 Texas Democratic Convention will be held in Corpus Christi this Thursday through Saturday. Delegates will consider nearly 20 resolutions targeting Israel amid its ongoing war against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that in 2007 took control of the almost entirely Muslim Gaza Strip.

This will be the second Texas Democratic convention in a row in which resolutions against Israel, which is predominantly Jewish, have been filed.

Arthur Pronin — president of the Meyerland-area Democrats, and an activist from Houston’s largest Jewish neighborhood — credited past party chair Gilberto Hinojosa with blocking what he characterized as the more inflammatory such resolutions from passing during the 2024 convention in El Paso.

“I think it’s incumbent upon the party chair to exercise leadership and make sure, just like our prior chair did … that we have balanced sensible statements coming out on the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples, and that we’re not getting into conspiracy theories about dual loyalties amongst our own Jewish delegates coming to the convention,” Pronin said, noting that he has been openly accused of disloyalty to the United States because of his support for Israel.

Kendall Scudder, the current chair of the Texas Democratic Party, did not respond to multiple requests for interviews by Houston Public Media.

The development comes amid rising anti-Israel sentiment, and in some cases anti-Jewish sentiment, among activists and candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties. That’s leaving some Jewish voters feeling politically homeless. Pronin noted that, even with Hinojosa’s intervention, the El Paso convention was an uncomfortable one for many Jewish attendees.

He fears the Corpus Christi one will be even more so.

“Many of my Jewish friends who’ve gone to every convention have told me this time they’re just not going to go because it was so unpleasant last time,” Pronin said.

The Corpus Christi convention and the Israel resolutions

While one of the proposed resolutions calls for a viable two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians that would lead to “a just and lasting peace” — many of them specifically and exclusively blame Israel for the war in Gaza, without any reference to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the fighting.

The resolutions being considered include calls to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza; calls for an arms embargo on Israel; and calls to brand pro-Israel organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as agents of a foreign government and to bar Democratic candidates from accepting their support.

Emad Salem, a board member of the Muslim Democratic Caucus of Texas, authored three such resolutions.

“I think sending weapons to Israel while they were killing 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza makes us complicit in this genocide,” Salem said. “It is our responsibility as a country that manufactures weapons and sells weapons to comply with our own laws. That makes us make sure that any country — whether we give it to them as aid or we sell it to them — these folks comply with the international humanitarian law and comply with our own laws where they do not use them to kill civilians.”

Israel has been accused by South Africa and several nongovernmental organizations of committing genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice has yet to issue a ruling on the issue. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that Gaza has lost 10% of its population since 2023, partly due to wartime deaths, partly due to declining births, and partly due to residents who have fled Gaza due to the fighting.

Paul Colbert, a Jewish delegate to the Corpus Christi convention, said the proposed resolutions — which he characterizes as “inflammatory and one-sided” — carry little weight. But he said they can serve to alienate Jewish voters who would otherwise support Democratic candidates.

“Most of these resolutions deal with the Gaza War,” Colbert said. “And the Gaza War started when Hamas violated a ceasefire that they had entered into with Israel. They violated it. They attacked Israel. They literally, purposely attacked Israeli civilians. Killed about 1,200 people, carried off about 250 others as hostages. And these resolutions pretend that that [didn’t] happen and that there’s no blame.”

Colbert stressed that there’s a difference between legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s actions — noting that he does this all the time — and blaming Israel as a state and Israelis as a people.

“That’s the same thing as saying that [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth’s view on Christian nationalism represents all of America,” Colbert said.

Mark Oppenheimer, an expert on religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis, said, “Nobody in the liberal tradition would say that any country, any government, or any human is above reproach or criticism.”

Added Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish think tank: “I love the state of Israel. I’m connected to it. I think the government of Israel does a lot of things that are wrong, and I don’t think it makes me a bad Jew or a bad Zionist or certainly not a bad American to say so.”

Antizionism on the left

Zionists believe Jewish people have a right to a national homeland.

Most Jewish Americans, whether they identify as Zionist or not, believe Israel has a right to exist — that’s according to a survey by the Jewish Federations of North America –- though younger Jewish Americans report feeling less of a connection with Israel than older ones.

There’s ample evidence, however, that Jewish Americans as a whole are paying a price, whether they support Israel or not. Since Oct. 7, 2023, both the FBI and Anti-Defamation League have reported anti-Jewish hate crimes spiking to record or near-record levels. Such crimes have ranged from graffiti and harassment to physical assaults and attempted arson against synagogues.

The issue came into sharp focus during the recent Democratic primary in Texas’ 35^th Congressional District, centered on San Antonio. Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist and progressive activist, emerged as the leading candidate during the first round of voting in March. Shortly before the May primary runoff, however, Galindo posted on Instagram that she wanted to turn a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility into a prison for “American Zionists,” claiming most Zionists are pedophiles who should be castrated.

The backlash was swift, and Galindo tried to walk back her statement.

“I want billionaire Zionists in prison,” Galindo said in a video reel posted to Instagram. “That does not mean I want Jews in internment camps.”

U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, was one of many Democratic officials who condemned Galindo’s statements as “abhorrent.”

“You had members of Congress saying, ‘If she is the nominee and if she is elected, we’re going to move to expel her, because she doesn’t represent our values,'” Fletcher said. “And we need to be clear in saying, ‘Those statements don’t represent our values. They’re not who we are, and we need to do the work we can to make sure that they’re not the folks who are elected.'”

Galindo, who did not respond to a request for comment, went on to lose her runoff election by a significant margin. But Pronin said there’s little to celebrate for the Jewish community.

“She lost, but she got [nearly] 40% of the vote, with it on every broadcast in America. And still some people said, ‘I’m still not worried about this,'” Pronin said. “So, it’s chilling.”

Other Democratic candidates critical of Israel have fared better. Possibly the best-known example nationwide is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim who has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. He vetoed a bill that would have permitted security perimeters around schools, including Jewish schools, citing concerns about the free speech rights of protesters, including pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Mamdani allowed a similar bill to take effect that allows for security perimeters around places of worship.

Other candidates who have made names for themselves more recently include Maine’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Graham Platner, a vocal critic of Israel who had a tattoo on his chest derived from a Nazi symbol. Platner had the tattoo covered up last year with another image.

Then there’s Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Michigan, who stated openly that he likes Jews and Judaism but that both are being ruined by the state of Israel.

“I sat there and said, ‘Wait a second. On what planet do minority groups have their identity narrated to them by others?'” Kurtzer said in response to El-Sayed’s remarks. “For many American Jews who care about Israel, Israel is not a political commitment. It’s actually a feature of our identity.”

Norri Leder, the founder of Houston Jewish Women Vote, said what makes this especially concerning is not the candidates themselves but the fact that so many Democrats openly support them.

“I find it shocking to watch so many Democrats tolerate anti-Jewish sentiment — and particularly Democratic leadership — whether it’s blatant antisemitism by some candidates or activists, use of coded language or messaging, or disproportionate bashing of Israel or even delegitimizing Israel’s existence, when they know that spills over into hatred or even violence against Jewish people,” Leder said.

Antisemitism on the right

If anti-Israel sentiment were rising only among Democrats, it might trigger a mass migration by Jewish voters to the Republican side. But that’s not the case.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told the Republican Jewish Coalition in March that he has seen antisemitism on the right spike in the last 18 months. Cruz specifically called out Tucker Carlson as a demagogue who has given a platform to Holocaust deniers, including Darryl Cooper and the far-right white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic,” Cruz said, “and I think that is a real possibility.”

Cody Weaver, former Plano ISD school board trustee and former Republican candidate for Collin County commissioner for Precinct 4. Cody Weaver / Facebook

Cody Weaver is a former Plano ISD school board member who is Jewish. He recently made an unsuccessful run for Collin County commissioner for Precinct 4 as a Republican. He says Republican voices there are now openly attacking not just Zionists but Jews.

“It’s incredible what has been labeled as OK or a nuisance for the Jewish community that for any other community, if it was racism or if it was Islamophobia or if it was something against national origin, it wouldn’t be tolerated,” Weaver said. “But here in Plano … with a huge Jewish community, it’s tolerated. And that blows my mind.”

Weaver said he was so frustrated with the lack of response to what he described as antisemitism by the Republican nominee for Precinct 4 county commissioner, Shelby Williams, that he initially planned to vote for Williams’ Democratic opponent, Julie Holmer, in November. He said he has since decided not to vote in that race.

On the statewide stage, Bo French is now the Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner. French, while serving as Tarrant County GOP chair, made a social media post asking, “Who is the bigger threat to America, Jews or Muslims?” For that, he faced calls to resign from, among others, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. French ultimately resigned his chairmanship in November to run for the Texas Railroad Commission.

“Voters are right to be concerned about the support [for] radical Islam and antisemitism that pervades the Democrat Party,” French said in response to a request for comment. “Republicans are the party of religious liberty and law and order, and I am confident we will have the support of the voters in November.”

Oppenheimer, the religion and politics expert at Washington University, says he sees common threads between the antisemitism that some have long viewed as the province of the right and antizionism on the political left.

“A very useful way, if you were to kind of pick one word, would be obsessive nature and … overwhelming explanatory power,” Oppenheimer said. “So, people who think that all the evils in the world or a disproportionate share of evils in the world are the result of, say, Israel or ‘Zionists’ are, in my mind, very suspect.”

Oppenheimer points to trends among student protest movements that have targeted Israel almost exclusively in recent years, while ignoring human rights abuses by states such as China.

“The other thing you want to look at is when the criticism takes on a conspiratorial tone,” Oppenheimer said. “So, to think that the Jewish state has special miraculous powers that it can actually, as [former Republican U.S. Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene said, create space lasers, is magical thinking about the Jews that they are somehow uniquely evil.”

Where do Jewish voters go?

All of this is putting many Jewish voters in an uncomfortable position as they evaluate how, or even whether, to participate in the political process.

Scott, who lives in North Texas, asked to be identified only by his first name, for his and his family’s safety. Scott said he began his career as a political activist on the Republican side, posting a Bob Dole sign in his yard when the late Kansas senator ran for president, but he said he gravitated to the Democrats as the Republican party became more openly Christian in the early 2000s.

Scott said he began feeling unwelcome among Democrats as well during his county’s 2024 Democratic convention. He said one of his then-friends took the microphone at the convention and shouted, “Free Palestine.”

Scott objected.

“My friend started shouting at me, gesticulating, waving their hands around,” Scott said. “The friends of this person surrounded me, approached me, and I’m not going to say I didn’t yell. I yelled back, but I walked away. And the chair of the party had the … rent-a-cop police escort me from the building … under threat of trespass. She violated Robert’s Rules of Order. I was a legitimate delegate.”

Scott said he saw the situation for Jewish voters within the Democratic party as only becoming more fraught in the two years since. He said he would not be attending the party’s state convention this year.

“I ran into the typical people trying to split hairs of antisemitism versus antizionism. And I just refuse to fall into that trap, and I just call it ‘Jew hatred’ because that’s what it is. It’s a permission structure for Jew hatred,” Scott said. “So, I am now orphaned.”

Scott is not alone in expressing that sentiment. Yvette Pintar, a Democratic precinct chair and an activist with Houston Jewish Women Vote, summed up the dilemma many Jewish voters now face.

“I think increasingly many of us feel a bit homeless,” Pintar said. “There probably was a moment where I considered possibly stepping down from my role, or I’ve entertained the idea of not continuing in that capacity, but I feel like, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

That’s also a concern of Leder, the founder of Houston Jewish Women Vote. Indeed, it’s one of the reasons she founded the organization, which she said has grown from 20 women to more than 400 in less than a year.

“For the first time in my life, I understand people not wanting to vote. I don’t advise it. It’s not my personal philosophy. I think we have to keep talking with candidates, keep talking with lawmakers, and explaining where we’re coming from,” Leder said. “We all want to take action to tone things down and push back on the bigotry. And we are a community that votes.”

Jewish Democrats aren’t the only ones wrestling with the problem. George Hittner is an attorney and Jewish Republican. He argues the answer is to step up participation in the political process, rather than to withdraw from it.

Leading up to a May 16 runoff for a Houston City Council seat that serves the Meyerland area, Hittner paid for an advertisement in the Jewish Herald-Voice criticizing candidate Joe Panzarella for accepting an endorsement from CAIR Action Texas, a regional political wing of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. The ad argued CAIR engaged in “antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric,” pointed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s designation of the group as a “terrorist organization,” and encouraged voters to “say no to Joe and no to hate.”

Hittner also publicized a lawsuit that sought an extension of voting beyond the scheduled Election Day, which was a Saturday. The petition argued Orthodox Jewish voters were disenfranchised because the election fell on Saturday, when they observe the weekly Sabbath day of rest, and they didn’t have time to react to the revelation of the CAIR endorsement.

The lawsuit was rejected the day before the election, which Panzarella won against Nick Hellyar in a race that was technically nonpartisan. Panzarella said at the time that representing the council district “means protecting Jewish families, congregations, schools, and institutions, and standing against antisemitism.”

“The Jewish people have a history of continuing to feed the alligator with the hopes that it eats us last. Well, it always eats us eventually, and that’s where we have gotten,” Hittner said. “We have placated, we have allowed people to just pat us on the head for far too long, and now we’re at a critical juncture where antisemitism has never been higher than it is now, at least not in the last near 100 years, and we’re at a critical moment.”

Kurtzer, of the Shalom Hartman Institute, has written on the issue of American Jewish voters increasingly feeling politically homeless. He said one of the major reasons for the rise of openly anti-Jewish candidates in both parties is gerrymandering, which tends to promote political extremism on both sides.

If that’s the case, growing polarization could force Jewish voters to make harder and harder choices when the time comes to cast their ballots. The midterm election is in November.

“You don’t have a luxury in a two-party system of abandoning both parties,” Kurtzer said. “The decision to abandon both parties is a decision to become powerless. And it’s foolish politically to decide to no longer identify with a political party. All that does is it takes you out of having a position of having any sort of agency within those parties.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to provide further clarity and context about anti-Israel sentiment compared to anti-Jewish sentiment, and to provide further context about a New York City bill vetoed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a tattoo on the chest of Graham Platner, Maine’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. It also has been corrected to reflect that Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, resigned from the Tarrant County GOP to run for the railroad commission.

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