House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has made at least three recent pilgrimages to New York to confer with Orthodox Jewish leaders who head a critical voting bloc of swing district Republicans.
The trip comes as McCarthy looks to save his slim five-seat House majority — much of which he owes to the red tide that has swept through New York, even while skipping the rest of the country.
“We have a lot in common, when you think about it,” McCarthy, 58 and a devout Baptist, said of his relationship with the prominent rabbi. “The more they see Republican policies with freedom, and family, and religious freedom, I think it makes a difference, especially in the north.”
Days before the 2022 midterm elections, McCarthy traveled to the Hasidic village of New Square in Rockland County to consult with Rabbi David Twersky.
The 82-year-old rabbi endorsed Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney and McCarthy appeared to seek an 11th-hour switch.
The mission failed, but McCarthy vowed he would return. Maloney was defeated by GOP candidate Mike Lawler.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is courting Jewish voters. Courtesy of Rabbi Moshe Margaretten
Speaker McCarthy is looking to hold a slim majority of five seats in the House.Getty Images
Rep. Upstate Mike Lawler just won his 2022 race by a few thousand votes.AP
In March he returned and met Twersky again — this time with Lawler by his side. In July, McCarthy sent a personal letter to mark the wedding of Twersky’s granddaughter and laid on the schmaltz.
“Your guidance and wisdom have undoubtedly played an important role in shaping your grandson’s life and guiding him to this moment,” the speaker wrote.
McCarthy also visited Hasidic Jews in Monticello in Sullivan County at a fundraiser for Rep. Marc Molinaro. He was hosted by the non-profit Tzedek Society and its politically influential leader, Rabbi Moshe Margaretten.
“He was very nice and he was very positive and we knew the speaker was a friend of the Jewish community. For many years has supported our values and it is a great honor for us to meet him,” said Margaretten.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Rabbi Moshe Margaretten at Monticello New York. Courtesy of Rabbi Moshe Margaretten
Orthodox Jews will be a critical voting block in the 2024 election in New York.Getty Images
Secular Jews are one of the most reliable Democratic voting blocs in the country, but the fast-growing Hasidic population tends to be conservative. Both Lawler and Molinaro each squeaked by Democratic opponents in 2022 by several thousand votes.
Democratic leader of the House of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has also baited religious Jews. In June, he held a meeting in the northern region of Satmar Jewish Kiryas Joel, with the spiritual leader Aaron Teitelbaum.
McCarthy said he is confident the Orthodox community will join the GOP in 2024.
“Hakeem can run for them but what is he going to do other than apologize for his other members for their antisemitism?” McCarthy said, referring to liberal Dems like Rep. Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, who was ousted from his seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for past statements about Jews. “What do you do when they just attack the Jewish faith and the comments they make? It was absolutely horrible.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
