How Michigan's Senate race is testing pro-Israel Jews' loyalty to the Democratic Party

JTA — Joel Tauber has been through many an election in his 92 years. And, with the exception of "one out of 100 times," he's always backed a Democrat — something even more important in the current midterm cycle, he believes.

"Winning the Senate and the House is the beginning of a way back to our democracy," Tauber, a founding chair of Jewish Federations of North America who has hosted former US president Bill Clinton and other Democratic leaders, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "It's really, really important to me."

But Tauber is a Michigan resident, and the state's upcoming US Senate primary is making him deeply uneasy. Like many a Jew in the mitten state, he is pulling for pro-Israel centrist US Rep. Haley Stevens to win on August 4.

Should her opponent, former county health official and staunch Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed, prevail instead, Tauber would take a step he's said he's never done before: leave the Senate ballot blank.

"I'd sit it out," he said, of the general election. Of El-Sayed, he said, "There's no way that I could vote for him."

Some Jewish Democratic leaders in the state are prepared to go even further. Several prominent Metro Detroit Jews who have traditionally fundraised for Democrats are also planning fundraisers for the presumptive GOP nominee, former US Rep. Mike Rogers, as a "hedge." Others are planning to help him if El-Sayed wins the Democratic nomination, one Jew who is close to the Stevens campaign told JTA.

"There are leaders in our Jewish community who are longtime, lifelong Democrats and Democratic fundraisers, who are very concerned with where their party's going," said Dennis Bernard, national chair of government relations for the nonpartisan JFNA and a Metro Detroit resident. "And if this is the case, they've made it clear, both financially and with their vote, that they would support Mike Rogers in the event El-Sayed wins the primary."

"This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime moment where you have to become a single-issue voter," Bernard said. "And that issue is antisemitism, our Judaism and Israel. This is where you put party third: our people first, our country second."

"If it came down to Mike Rogers and El-Sayed, I will vote for Mike Rogers," Gorosh said. "I wouldn't write a check, but I would vote for him, and I would tell my like-minded friends to do the same, and the reasons why."

Another Detroit News poll this week shows that most likely Democratic voters have a negative view of AIPAC, which according to an AdImpact analysis of the most recent filings has spent more than $28 million for Stevens to date. AIPAC's support of Stevens is one of El-Sayed's biggest attack lines. The candidate recently claimed that the group has spent more than $50 million against him, though a campaign representative told JTA that figure includes $20 million from new super PACs that have not disclosed their funding sources and have no immediately apparent links to AIPAC.

"Our focus is ensuring Haley Stevens wins the primary election," Soifer said in a statement, also saying that El-Sayed's "views are not aligned with the vast majority of Jewish Americans."

In late June, the temple itself — the largest Reform congregation in the country — sent an email to congregants stating, "This year, antisemitism is on the ballot." Without naming candidates, the unsigned message concluded, "The Talmud reminds us that our leaders are chosen by us — silence is not a choice we can make right now."