Study claims 70 percent of Jews plan to vote for Joe Biden

The Jewish vote in the upcoming presidential election should be very close to the way it has been split since 2012, a new study by the Pew Research Center found.

The survey, conducted earlier this month and published Tuesday, found that 70 percent  of American Jews plan to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, while 27 percent  plan to vote for President Donald Trump.

If those numbers bear out, they will be nearly identical to the Jewish result in 2016, when Pew found that Hillary Clinton won 71 percent  of the Jewish vote to Trump’s 25 percent . In 2012, the numbers were slightly higher for the Republican candidate: Barack Obama won 69 percent  of the Jewish vote while Mitt Romney won 30 percent .

The margin of error for Jewish respondents on the Pew survey is quite large, at 9.6 percent , which means that the result is statistically similar to the Jewish vote in previous elections.

The poll is a blow to Jewish Republican hopes that Trump’s record in office — including recognising Israeli territorial claims, brokering peace between Israel and two Arab states and pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement — could shift the vote in his favour.

The Pew poll also found that 35 percent  of Jewish Americans approve of the job Trump has done in office, similar to his 38 percent  approval rating among Americans overall.

Overall, Pew found that 52 percent  of Americans overall prefer Biden while 42 percent  prefer Trump. Large majorities of Jews, Hispanic Catholics, Black Protestants and religiously unaffiliated voters support Biden. Most white Christians, including the vast majority of white evangelicals, support Trump.