Manhattan Institute poll finds 17% of GOP members are ‘anti-Jewish Republicans’

Some 12% of GOP voters described themselves as having “hostility to, or prejudice against, Jewish people.”

By Andrew Bernard, JNS

Some 17% of GOP supporters are “anti-Jewish Republicans” with beliefs including Holocaust denial or the view that Israel is a “settler-colonial state” that drags the United States “into wars we have no business in,” according to a poll which the conservative Manhattan Institute released on Monday.

The survey defined current GOP supporters as either registered Republicans or voters who backed U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, regardless of formal party affiliation.

It found that 37% of these Republicans believe the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe,” with 77% of Hispanic GOP voters, 66% of black GOP voters and 54% of male GOP voters under 50-years-old holding that view.

The institute defined an “anti-Jewish Republican” as any respondent who either self-identified as racist and antisemitic or believed that both the Holocaust was exaggerated and that Israel is a “settler-colonial state.”

Some 12% of GOP voters described themselves as having “hostility to, or prejudice against, Jewish people.”

In line with recent national surveys of voters, the poll found a sharp age divide in attitudes towards Israel and Jews.

“Anti-Jewish Republicans are typically younger, disproportionately male, more likely to be college-educated and significantly more likely to be new entrant Republicans,” or voters who cast their first ballot for Trump in 2024, the survey authors wrote.

“They are also more racially diverse. Consistent church attendance is one of the strongest predictors of rejecting these attitudes,” they wrote.

“Infrequent church attendance is, all else equal, one of the strongest predictors of falling into this segment.”

Conducted from Oct. 15-26, the poll combines surveys of four separate voting blocs: “1,493 Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters, 301 black Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters, 501 Hispanic Republicans and/or 2024 Trump voters and 500 additional registered voters.”

As a proportion of the electorate, Republicans are similar to Democrats in the rates at which they hold anti-Jewish views.

“The survey finds slightly higher levels of anti-Jewish sentiment among Democrats: 20%, compared to 17% among Republicans,” the authors wrote.

The poll found that GOP voters are more concerned about dual loyalty to a foreign country among Arab-Americans than Jewish-Americans.

“Four in 10 members of the current GOP believe that most or all Arab or Muslim Americans have greater loyalty to a foreign country than to the United States,” the Manhattan Institute wrote.

“For every other group, no more than three in 10 believe that most or all members are more loyal elsewhere. The same is true of views on Jewish Americans,” it wrote.

“Despite online discourse, only 11% of GOP voters say that nearly all Jewish Americans owe loyalty to a foreign country—essentially identical to perceptions of Italian Americans and evangelical Christian Americans.”