Orthodox Jewish bloc voting is a political strategy used by Orthodox Jewish communities in the United States, predominately in New York and New Jersey,[1][2][3] to vote as a bloc as directed by local leadership.[4][5] While Orthodox Jews as a group typically vote for Republican candidates on the national level, community leaders will often endorse local Democratic candidates if they are viewed as likely to win,[6] or if they could effectively represent the Orthodox community's interests in a majority Democratic caucus.[7]
Notable instances
In the 2000 United States Senate election in New York, the Hasidic village of New Square gave Democrat Hillary Clinton 1,400 votes, compared to just 12 for her Republican opponent.[8] Clinton's husband President Bill Clinton subsequently pardoned four New Square men convicted of defrauding government aid programs, which prompted allegations of vote trading.[8] Clinton denied that clemency for the men had come up when she visited New Square on the campaign trail, and federal prosecutors determined in 2002 that no wrongdoing had occurred.[8]
In the 2023 New Jersey General Assembly election, Democrat Avi Schnall, an Orthodox rabbi, flipped a strongly Republican state legislative seat thanks to near-unanimous support from Orthodox leaders.[11] Schnall won the heavily Orthodox town of Lakewood with 86% of the vote, a town which simultaneously gave Republican state senator Robert Singer (also endorsed by Orthodox leadership) 92% of the vote.[11]
Bloc voting has been noted to increase the political influence of Orthodox Jewish communities. In 2022, the New York Times wrote that city and state officials in New York had "avoided taking action" over Hasidic yeshivas that violated state laws, "bowing to the influence of Hasidic leaders who push their followers to vote as a bloc and have made safeguarding the schools their top political priority".[13] Due to bloc voting, local and statewide candidates in New York treat Hasidic community endorsements as critical, and few elected officials embrace positions that would antagonize them.[14][15]
Some Orthodox politicians in New York have regularly run unopposed due to high popular support, including on both the Democratic and Republican lines.[16][17] In 2022, Republican New York gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin won the state’s heavily Orthodox 48th Assembly district by 66 points, but the district concurrently elected Democratic assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, whom Republicans had not even run a candidate against.[18]
Decline
The prevalence of Orthodox Jewish bloc voting has been noted by some commentators to be declining in recent years, as Orthodox Jews increasingly vote based on personal conviction or participate in national ideological movements.[19][20]
^Weiss, Steven I. "U.S. gets another Orthodox mayor"Archived February 7, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 12, 2006. Accessed February 6, 2022. "That's certainly the case in Lakewood, where Meir Lichtenstein was inaugurated as mayor in January. Orthodox Jews make up nearly half of the village's 70,000 residents, and they often vote as a bloc, with a council of leaders determining whom they should support."
^Stilton, Phil. Jack Ciattarelli visits Lakewood, making a pitch for the Lakewood bloc voteArchived February 7, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Shore News Network, May 31, 2021. Accessed February 6, 2022. "New Jersey candidate for Governor Ciattarelli this week visited Lakewood to lobby for that town's large and highly coveted 'bloc vote'. In politics, the Lakewood Orthodox Jewish community often votes as a bloc, but not always, guided by a council of rabbis and business owners in the growing city called 'the VAAD'. The Lakewood vote can often make or break a candidate's campaign and Ciattarelli knows that."
