WASHINGTON — A liberal favorite (former Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold) and a leading critic of the Iran deal (Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk) both fell short on election day.
Feingold was upset in a bid to reclaim his seat, losing to the incumbent, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who received 51.8% of the vote to Feingold’s 45.5%.
J Street injected $500,000 to boost Feingold and Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s successful bid to unseat Kirk, a strident critic of the Iran nuclear deal exchanging sanctions relief for a nuclear rollback.
Duckworth, who was backed by J Street with more than $145,000, has been an enthusiastic backer of the agreement reached last year between six world powers, led by the US, and Iran.
Two other Republican incumbents who criticized the Iran deal did win — Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Toomey kept his seat, fending off a spirited challenge from Democrat Katie McGinty. The Republican Jewish Coalition conducted a campaign attacking McGinty in the tight Senate race for her “dangerously naive” support of the Iran deal.
J Street spent nearly $250,000 in an attempt to unseat Toomey.
In Florida, Rubio was re-elected with some 52% of the vote to 44% for two-time Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy.
In Georgia, Republican incumbent Sen. Jonny Isakson defeated challenger Jim Barksdale, a Democratic multimillionaire who toured the West Bank in 2010 with Interfaith Peace Builders, a group that has ties to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
In Missouri, incumbent Republican Sen. Roy Blunt won with 49.4% of the vote to 46.2% for Democratic challenger Jason Kander, 35, a Jewish military veteran who served in Afghanistan.
The Jewish contingent to the US House of Representatives grew from 19 to 23 in this week’s elections, doubling its Republican representation from one to two.
Five Jews overall were newly elected to the House, while one Jewish congressman in Florida is retiring.
The Senate Jewish contingent dropped from nine to eight as Barbara Boxer of California retired.
Three Democrats picked up seats from Republicans in an otherwise dismal night for their party, which saw the GOP sweep the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Picking up seats for the Democrats were:
• Josh Gottheimer, a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton and a Microsoft executive, who won a hard fought battle in New Jersey’s 5th District against Scott Garrett, a longtime congressman who was exceptionally conservative for this northeastern district. The election was marred in its final days with the appearance of an unsigned anti-Semitic leaflet targeting Gottheimer.
• Brad Schneider, who regained the seat he lost in 2014 from Bob Dold in Illinois’s 10th district, encompassing Chicago’s northern suburbs. Dold first won the seat in 2010, then lost it to Schneider in 2012.
• Jacky Rosen, a software developer and synagogue president, who won in Nevada’s 3rd District, covering the Las Vegas suburbs. Joe Heck, the district’s incumbent Republican, lost in his bid to replace Democrat Harry Reid in the Senate.
• Jamie Raskin, a Maryland state senator, who won the battle to replace Chris Van Hollen in Maryland’s 8th District. The district includes the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Van Hollen, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate.
• David Kustoff, a former US attorney, who handily kept Tennessee’s 8th district Republican, replacing the retiring Stephen Fincher.
Kustoff brings to two the Memphis Jewish delegation, joining Steve Cohen, a Democrat representing the 9th District; and the Republican Jewish delegation to Congress, joining Lee Zeldin, who was reelected in New York’s 9th District encompassing Long Island’s eastern reaches.
Another Jewish Republican scoring a victory on Tuesday was Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL who became the first Jewish governor of Missouri.
Leaving Congress is Alan Grayson, who retired as a representative in Florida’s 9th District, in the south of the state, to run for the Democratic nomination to the Senate — he lost.
The Democratic contingent in the Senate will drop by one with the retirement of Barbara Boxer of California. Two Jewish Democrats in Missouri and Wisconsin failed in their bids to replace Republican incumbents.
The post How Jews fared in Senate and House races appeared first on IJN | Intermountain Jewish News.