John McCain is vowing a fight to win over Jewish voters, and even hopes to break Ronald Reagan’s record Jewish support for a GOP candidate.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee will visit Israel tomorrow and is expected to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other leaders.
While Jews make up only a small percentage of voters nationwide, there are big Jewish populations in the electoral-vote-rich states of New York, New Jersey, California and the bellwether states of Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
A Quinnipiac poll of New Jersey voters shows Hillary Rodham Clinton leading McCain, 54 percent to 38 percent, among Jews.
Barack Obama leads McCain 49 to 37 percent in the same survey.
Reagan captured about 40 percent of the Jewish vote in 1980, according to the Solomon Project, a Jewish-American advocacy group.
“Senator McCain has an immense amount of support in the Jewish community. His pro-Israel foreign-policy resonates with Jewish Americans,” said McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanon.
Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said, “Either Barack or Hillary will get a large percentage of the Jewish vote.” Jews tend to be liberal on social issues but hawkish concerning protecting Israel.