While the world waits with baited breath for the results of the US presidential election, over a dozen Jewish candidates across the political spectrum – but mostly democrats – are poised to take seats in the 119th US Congress and state governments across the country.
Here is the JC’s roundup of those lesser-known Jewish politicians.
State Governor
Democrat Josh Stein, 58, is running for governor of North Carolina after serving as the 51st Attorney General of the state since 2017, when he became the first Jewish person to win a statewide election in North Carolina. Prior to that, Stein represented North Carolina’s 16th Senate district from 2008 until 2016.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is running for North Carolina Governor in the election on 5 November. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
Following a CNN report in September on inflammatory – and antisemitic – comments made by his opponent Republican lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, Stein emerged as the favourite in the race for North Carolina governor.
Stein, who has been described as a centrist Democrat and is the son of an activist and a civil rights attorney, often discusses his Judaism on the campaign trail: “Almost every single time he mentions the fact that his faith is crucial to who he is,” Steve Schewel, the Jewish former mayor of Durham, told JTA. “I would say that his Judaism has definitely informed his values. Judaism is a religion where justice is at the forefront of everything that we do.”
House of Representatives
Jewish politician Adam Schiff, 64, served as a democratic representative for California since 2001 and is retiring from the role this year to run for Senate. Running for his seat in California’s 30th congressional district is another Jewish democrat, Laura Friedman, 57, a former film producer who previously served as mayor of Glendale, California and in the California State Assembly. Described in her campaign as being “on the front lines of every progressive issue”, Friedman is predicted to beat her Republican opponent Alex Balekian in the predominantly blue state.
Laura Friedman. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images for the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars Campaign)
She is not the only Jewish politician from California who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives; Sara Jacobs, 35, is the incumbent democratic candidate running in California’s 50th congressional district.
In Florida, Jewish democrats abound; incumbent democrat Lois Frankel has been renominated to run for representative of the 22nd congressional district, as has Florida’s 23rd district incumbent democrat Jared Moskowitz and 25th district incumbent Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is Florida’s first female Jewish member of Congress.
Brad Schneider. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Illinois’ Brad Schneider, who worked on a kibbutz in Israel after graduating from university in 1983, is the 10th district’s incumbent running as a Democrat. Newcomer Seth Cohen, a Republican, is running to represent Illinois’ 9th district against incumbent democrat Jan Schakowsky, also Jewish, who has been the 9th district’s representative since 1999 and hoping for a 14th term.
Jamie Raskin is the Jewish incumbent Democrat running to represent Maryland’s 8th congressional district, a position he has held since 2017. In New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer hopes to be re-elected to represent the state’s 5th congressional district, and, in New York, Daniel Sachs Goldman, heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, is a Democrat running for re-election in New York’s 10th congressional district. He previously served as the lead majority counsel in the first impeachment enquiry against Donald Trump and lead counsel to House Managers in Trump’s impeachment trial in 2019. He is reportedly one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
Daniel Sachs Goldman. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Democrat Jerry Nadler, the incumbent renominated to represent New York’s 12th district, is also Jewish, as is Steve Cohen, the democrat running for re-election to represent Tennessee’s 9th congressional district.
Senate
Jewish Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has been in the role since 2021, may be joined by several new Jewish senators with Tuesday’s election.
Former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin, the representative for Michigan’s 7th congressional district since 2019, is the democratic nominee for US senate in Michigan, where she faces former Rep. Mike Rogers for the seat. If she wins, she will become the first Jewish woman to represent Michigan, where Jews make up 1.5 per cent of the electorate, in the Senate.
Elissa Slotkin. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Jews make up 3 per cent of the electorate in Nevada, where Democrat Jacky Rosen is running for a second term in the Senate against Republican nominee Sam Brown. Prior to her career in politics, Rosen served as the president of the Congregation Ner Tamid synagogue, a Reform Jewish synagogue, and has cited the Jewish value of tikkun olam as part of her motivation to enter politics.
Three-term independent Bernie Sanders, re-elected in 2018 with 67.4 per cent of the vote, is running as the incumbent in the Vermont senate election, opposed by Republican candidate Gerald Malloy.
