November 3, 2021
This exit poll was conducted by soliciting responses by text message from a current list of Jewish voters in Virginia. From this list, we received over 400 responses indicating a vote for one of the two candidates. 63% of these Jewish voters had cast their ballot for Terry McAuliffe (D) and 37% for Glenn Youngkin (R).
48% of those who voted for McAuliffe said his level of support for President Biden had some impact on their support for him (27% said it had a lot of influence, 21% said it has a little influence, 52% said it had no influence).
In contrast, only 36% of those who voted for Glenn Youngkin said his level of support for President Trump had any impact on their support for him (24% said it has a lot influence, 12% said it had a little influence, 64% said it has no influence).
We asked voters to rank a series of issues in order of importance to them. We then obtained an average weighted score for each issue: (1) based on its priority for all voters, (2) based on its priority for Democratic voters, and (3) based on its priority for Republican voters.
The most important issue overall, and for voters within each party, was education and schools (17% of the weighted vote). As a whole, Jewish voters listed jobs and the economy as their second highest priority (16%), followed by Covid-19 and health care (13%), climate change (12%), antisemitism and the January 6th insurrection (both at 11%), and racial justice and Israeli peace and security (both at 10%).
When considered by party there were some significant variations in priority.
Jewish Republican voters had significantly more cohesion around their priorities with greater priority given to education and schools, jobs and the economy, Israeli Peace and Security, and antisemitism. Climate change, racial justice and the January 6th Insurrection were low priority issues for Republicans.
Jewish Democratic voters were more diverse in their priorities leading most issues receiving a fairly similar weighted score. There were no clearly agreed top priority issues, though antisemitism and Israeli Peace and Security were clear low priority issues.
