20 Mar
Janice Weiner

Janice Weiner (IA): ‘My Community Has Been Working Hard for Weeks to Prepare’

Janice Weiner (61), a Democrat from Iowa City, IA, is president-elect of her synagogue, Agudas Achim, and on its safety committee, an area where she gained expertise while in the Foreign Service. She is very active in the Democratic Party, serving as first vice-chair of the Johnson County Democrats (the “bluest county in Iowa”) and was recently elected to the city council in Iowa City. She also serves on the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council. We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? I think the federal response is way too little, too late. The lack of...

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20 Mar
Bud Hockenberg

Bud Hockenberg (IA): ‘The Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic has Increased My Support for Him’

Bud Hockenberg (92), a Republican from Des Moines IA, is the former president of the Des Moines Jewish Federation and a founding member of what is now the Republican Jewish Coalition, as well as of Iowans Supporting Israel, a bipartisan group. He is a fourth-generation Des Moines resident and former president of the Conservative synagogue Tifereth Israel. He is still a “very active” attorney and recently attended his 52nd consecutive AIPAC conference. We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? The federal response is perfect. What do you think about the response in your state/community? Iowa’s response has been...

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20 Mar
Mark Goldhaber

Mark Goldhaber (NC): ‘It Has Made Me Feel Better About the President’

Mark Goldhaber (67), a Republican from Raleigh, NC, is active in the Jewish Federation and AIPAC. He previously worked for a Republican member of Congress and the National Republican Congressional Committee, and he was a Reagan appointee to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His wife is a Democrat and he’s a Republican, which they’ve “dealt with happily for 35 years.” We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? Overall, I think the federal response has been reasonably strong. Clearly the testing delivered by the FDA and CDC initially were inadequate and the administration was...

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20 Mar
Nina Jacobs Stanley

Nina Stanley (OH): ‘Trump is a True Threat to Our Wellbeing’

Nina Stanley (68) is a Democrat from Cincinnati, OH. Her “very liberal” leanings haven’t budged since May 4, 1970, when bullets fired by the Ohio National Guard struck down four fellow students at Kent State University during the Vietnam War protest. “I was shot at. A friend pushed me down. I had never heard gunfire in my life and had no idea they were using live ammunition. When I got up, I said something like, ‘I didn’t know blanks could do that to you.’” We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? I think the federal response...

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20 Mar
Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith (OH): ‘The Federal Response Has Been Pretty Good Under the Circumstances’

Andrew Smith (57), a Republican from Columbus, OH, grew up in Maine where he was raised Conservative, “because that’s pretty much all we had up there.” He is a long-time Republican who can’t stand Trump, and he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. When he married Lavea Brachman, a Democrat, who is also being interviewed for this project, he went to work in his in-laws’ paint and resin business in Columbus. He is now CEO. We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? The federal response has been pretty good under the circumstances and getting better as...

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20 Mar
Alan Zimmerman

Alan Zimmerman (VA): ‘This Tragic Failure Will Define Trump’s Pitiful Legacy’

Alan Zimmerman (61), a Democrat from Charlottesville, VA, was president of Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville during the Unite the Right march in August 2017. Zimmerman remembers standing on the steps, watching armed neo-Nazis shouting “Heil Hitler.” He was “not surprised that there is anti-Semitism in America—I’m not naïve—but that it could be displayed so brazenly and even proudly in the streets of an American city was frankly shocking.” We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? The federal response has overall been criminally negligent. Two months were wasted while Trump denied there was a problem, and...

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20 Mar
Beth Bendheim

Beth Bendheim (VA): ‘The Federal Response is Unacceptable’

Beth Bendheim (50), a Democrat from Richmond, VA,  was the development director for a Jewish day school in Richmond prior to working in finance. She also held public relations and marketing positions in the sports world, including with a cycling race originally sponsored by Donald Trump, known as the Tour de Trump. Bendheim was active in the 2018 Virginia Congressional campaign of Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who defeated Republican incumbent Dave Brat. We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? The federal response is unacceptable. Trump’s ego has entirely gotten in the way of governing our country and...

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20 Mar
Ariana Mentzel

Ariana Mentzel (MI): ‘The President’s Remarks Have Been Ridiculous’

Ariana Mentzel (34), a Democrat from Beverly Hills, MI, leads college students in conversations about anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Detroit Center for Civil Discourse. Named one of Detroit Jewish News’ “36 under 36,” she serves as the vice president Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Mentzel also served as former Oakland County Chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus. She runs a preschool Shabbat program at her temple. We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic? Overall, it’s had its pluses and minuses. The President's remarks have been ridiculous.  He...

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20 Mar
Stuart Baum

Stuart Baum (MI): ‘Many of My Peers are Failing to Take the Threat Seriously’

Stuart Baum (22), a Democrat from Detroit, MI, attended Jewish day school growing up and is a recent graduate of Wayne State University where he served as student government president. Baum is an intern in the Michigan state legislature, where he serves as a community liaison, connecting residents’ concerns with legislative priorities. He is also working at the Brennan Center for Justice on advancing and protecting voting rights. As a member of the LGBTQ community, he would like to see more attention paid to gay rights in the presidential campaign.   We are providing the unfiltered opinions of voters interviewed for this project. Those views are based on their understanding and perception of facts and information from a range of sources. In some cases, that information may be misleading or incorrect. What do you think about the federal response to the...

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20 Mar
*Ongoing Findings, 000 JPVP, Coronavirus, Latest

Voters Disagree on Administration’s Response to Coronavirus, but Agree on Seriousness of the Crisis

With the nationwide near-total shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, we asked participants in the Jewish Political Voices Project (JPVP) what they thought about the response from political leaders. We also wanted to know how their lives have changed as “social distancing” becomes the new normal.  The crisis so far shows few signs of bridging the political divide between Republican and Democratic JPVP participants. The Democrats are nearly uniform in their condemnation of the federal response to the pandemic, while several Republicans praise the Trump administration’s actions and say their support for the president has grown. Iowa Republican Bud Hockenberg, 92, calls the federal response “perfect” and says it has “increased my support” for Trump. North Carolina Republican Mark Goldhaber, 67, characterizes the federal response as “reasonably strong,” even though it was “slow off the...

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