Georgia’s Jewish Electorate
Data finds Jewish community more educated, older, and more liberal than state population in general.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Multiple surveys have found that Jews vote in percentages higher than the population in general, which — in some places and in some races — can make the Jewish vote more influential.
Jews make up an estimated 1.2 percent of Georgia’s population. Before the redistricting that followed the 2020 Census, 68 percent of Jewish adults in Georgia lived in congressional districts within metro Atlanta, according to the American Jewish Population Project (AJPP). Before redistricting, the sixth district was estimated to have the largest percentage of Jewish adults (4.8 percent), followed by the fifth (3.0 percent), 11th (2.1 percent), seventh (2.2 percent), and fourth (1 percent). Post-redistricting estimates were not available.
AJPP reported that an estimated 58 percent of Jewish adults in Georgia have a college degree, more than twice the rate in the state’s adult population. The Jewish electorate is older than the state’s adult population in general, with 29 percent being age 65 or older, compared with 19 percent for the state in general.
According to the AJPP data, 53 percent of Jewish adults identified as Democrats or leaning toward the Democrats, compared with 47 percent statewide. At the same time, 38 percent identified as Republican or leaning Republican, compared with 46 percent statewide.
In terms of political orientation, 36 percent of Jewish adults identify as liberal, compared with 21 percent statewide; 38 percent as moderate, compared with 36 percent statewide; and 21 percent conservative, compared with 43 percent statewide.
Younger Jewish adults, ages 18-24, were more likely to identify as independent than those age 65 and older, with 45 percent of the younger group identifying as independent, compared with 30 percent of the elders.
A Jewish Electorate Institute survey of 800 self-identified registered Jewish voters, conducted online from Aug. 25 to Sept. 1, asked which two issues would influence their vote for Congress in November. The future of democracy (45 percent), abortion (38 percent), and jobs and the economy (28 percent) topped the list of 11 issues. Israel tied for ninth (7 percent).
By comparison with the public in general, inflation (43 percent) topped a Quinnipiac poll of 1,157 likely Georgia voters conducted Oct. 7 to Oct. 10, followed by abortion (14 percent), election laws (11 percent), and gun violence (10 percent). Inflation (73 percent) topped the list for Republicans, with no other issue in double digits. Democrats ranked abortion first (27 percent), followed by election laws (17 percent), gun violence (13 percent), health care (12 percent), and inflation (12 percent). Independents placed inflation (42 percent) first, followed by election laws (14 percent) and abortion (13 percent).
comments