Here are the results in Tuesday’s races that matter to Jews
Published November 6, 2018
J.B. Pritzker shown Oct. 1, 2018 at an event in Chicago. He will be the next governor of Illinois. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
This is a developing story.
(JTA) — J.B. Pritzker, a Jewish Democrat, will be the next governor of Illinois, and Democrat Jared Polis will be the first Jewish and first gay governor of Colorado.
Here are more results in races that matter to Jews:
House of Representatives
In Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, who was expected to win, will become the first Palestinian-American to enter Congress. Tlaib favors a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has opposed U.S. aid to Israel. She will also be one of the first Muslim women in Congress, along with Ilhan Omar, who is expected to win in Minnesota.
And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive millennial from New York City who won an upset primary win earlier this year, will become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Ocasio-Cortez has criticized Israel’s West Bank occupation, and called its clashes with protesters in Gaza a “massacre.”
Leslie Cockburn, the Democratic House candidate who wrote a book sharply criticizing Israel, will lose her race in Virginia.
Republicans who charge that the Democratic Party has departed from its pro-Israel bona fides pointed to Cockburn, Tlaib and Omar as proof.
In North Carolina, Democrat Kathy Manning, a philanthropist and longtime Jewish organizational leader, lost her House race. She was the first woman to chair the Jewish Federations of North America and was a founder of Prizmah, an umbrella association for Jewish day schools.
Arthur Jones, the neo-Nazi who won the Republican nomination on Chicago’s South Side, lost his race, as expected. He had won his nomination unopposed and was repudiated by his party.
Senate
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democratic pro-Israel stalwart, is projected to win. He voted against the 2015 agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, going against President Barack Obama and his own party. Menendez had been hampered by a corruption trial that ended in mistrial last year.
Governors’ races and ballot initiatives
Pritzker is projected to win the governor’s race in Illinois, unseating Republican Bruce Rauner. Pritzker, a centrist Democrat, is a billionaire venture capitalist.
Polis, 42, a former tech mogul, will succeed John Hickenlooper as governor of Colorado. His campaign has focused on renewable energy, education and income inequality.
In Florida, voters passed a ballot initiative to restore voting rights to 1.5 million former felons, which could work to Democrats’ advantage in future elections. Jewish groups led the charge to pass the initiative.
Democrats are hoping to gain a majority in the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, by time the night ends. JTA will continue reporting results as they come in.
