The annual survey of American Jewish opinion finds that if Howard Dean, the current Democratic front runner, ran against President Bush today, 31 percent of American Jews would vote for Bush, as against 19 percent who did so in the 2000 election. Sixty percent would vote for Dean, and nine percent are undecided.
President Bush would also garner 31 percent if Rep. Richard Gephardt or Sen. John Kerry were the challenger for the White House, the survey indicates. In a presidential face-off with Wesley Clark, President Bush would win 29 percent of the Jewish vote, while against Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Bush would receive 24 percent.
In these scenarios, Gephardt would get 60 percent of the Jewish vote, Kerry or Clark would win 59 percent, and Lieberman would garner 71 percent.
Winning 31 percent of the Jewish vote would make President Bush the most popular Republican presidential candidate with Jews since Ronald Reagan won a second term in 1984.
When asked about party affiliation, a majority of American Jews still consider themselves Democrats. Fifty-one percent of American Jews identify as Democrats; 31 percent as independents; and 16 percent as Republicans.
The survey also finds that 54 percent of American Jews disapprove, and 41 percent approve, of how President Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism. On how the president is handling the war with Iraq, 54 percent disapprove and 43 percent approve.
This is just a sampling of results from AJC's 2003 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, the seventh in a series carried out since 1997. Other topics covered include the Israel-Arab conflict; the attachment of American Jews to Israel; transatlantic relations; attitudes towards various foreign countries; political and social issues in the U.S.; perceptions of anti- Semitism; and Jewish identity concerns.
The survey was done by Market Facts, a leading survey research organization. One thousand American Jews were interviewed by telephone between November 25 and December 11, 2003. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
Source: AJC press release of Jan. 12, 2004
