Maryland Gov. Hogan Courts Montgomery County’s Jewish Voters

At the top of a current Sabbath dinner at a Montgomery County synagogue, Rabbi Stuart Wein­blatt introduced Gov. Larry Hogan by describing his guest’s intense schedule of outreach to Maryland’s Jewish community.

That Tuesday, Hogan had visited a Jewish school in Baltimore. On Friday, earlier than the dinner, he lunched with Jewish leaders in Rockville and visited a Jewish faculty there. On Sunday, the governor was to host a Hanukkah get together at his Annapolis residence.

Joked the rabbi: "And on Monday, I’m taking him to the mikvah," the ritual bath used for, among other functions, conversions to the Jewish religion.

Hogan, a Roman Catholic, won’t be switching religions. However he's seeking to capitalize on a commerce and cultural mission to Israel in September with a series of occasions that would help him win over traditionally Democratic Jewish voters and strengthen his possibilities of reelection in 2018.

Analysts say the governor, whose approval rating halfway through his first term in office is about 70 percent, has an especially good opportunity to choose up assist in Montgomery’s Jewish electorate. Although they usually tend to be registered Democrats or independents, these voters are sympathetic to Hogan’s avoidance of onerous-line conservative positions on divisive social issues resembling abortion and gun management, and to his emphasis on financial administration and job creation, these analysts say.

They also welcome the governor’s robust help for Israel, together with his vocal opposition to efforts around the nation to encourage boycotts of Israeli merchandise or other economic actions in opposition to the Jewish state.

"The Jewish neighborhood in Montgomery County may be very a lot in play," said Ronald J. Halber, government director of the Jewish Group Relations Council of Better Washington. "He’s cultivating relationships that will pay dividends in the subsequent election."

Some Jewish leaders within the county say Donald Trump could undercut hogan olympia sneaker’s efforts if the president-elect’s administration fails to curb or disavow the open anti-Semitism and intolerance of a few of his supporters.

Hogan pointedly distanced himself from Trump during the election, declaring early on that he wouldn't vote for the Republican nominee. (He stated he wrote in his father’s name on the ballot.) Their shared occasion affiliation, however, may nonetheless imply adverse repercussions for Hogan from voters offended by Trump’s behavior.

"Two years from now, it can take rather a lot more than a trip to a Jewish day college and a Shabbat dinner to flip folks," mentioned Susan Turnbull, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who sits on the Jewish relations council’s board.

Although Hogan "does present a average, nonpartisan picture," Turnbull mentioned, "that’s going to be so much harder when Donald Trump, the pinnacle of his social gathering, is president."

Montgomery’s Jewish inhabitants exceeds 100,000, and Jews typically prove to vote in comparatively high numbers. hogan suede ankle boots lost Montgomery by 66,382 votes in 2014, certainly one of solely four jurisdictions that he did not win in his upset victory over then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.

Hogan campaigned closely in [empty] Baltimore County and did properly with Jewish voters there — a degree he noted to reporters after his meeting with elementary college students at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day Faculty in Rockville. But Jewish voters in Montgomery are more liberal.

"I won the Jewish community overwhelmingly in Baltimore County by, like, 20 factors," Hogan stated. "In Montgomery County, we’ve been doing nice outreach. But it’s not really about that. It’s about attempting to represent everybody in the state."

Speaking to a gymnasium full of scholars at the school, with lots of the boys wearing yarmulkes and a big Israeli flag on the wall, Hogan stated the aim of his seven-day trip to Israel was to strengthen financial, educational and cultural ties with Maryland. He also spent much of his speak at Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a synagogue in Potomac, describing his visit to the Jewish state — and evaluating it to Maryland.

"We’re like Israel. We may be small in geographic size, but we’re very highly effective," Hogan stated.

He touted his decision to suggest a doubling of spending, from $5 million to $10 million, for a program that gives scholarships for low-earnings college students to attend parochial and private faculties.

Mother and father and other adults in attendance at Charles E. Smith stated they were impressed by Hogan’s good humor and easygoing manner.

"He was very personable; he was a delight to take heed to," said Jocelyn Krifcher, a board member of the Jewish Federation of Larger Washington, whose youngest daughter is in 12th grade at the college.

But Krifcher, a Democrat, added: "That doesn’t mean that each Democrat goes to show round and vote for him subsequent time."

Hogan’s efforts may be geared toward luring marketing campaign donations as well as votes, or no less than at denying donations to any potential Democratic opponents. Jewish voters in Montgomery and elsewhere in Maryland are a disproportionately large supply of marketing campaign contributions, analysts stated.

One potential Democratic challenger to Hogan, Baltimore County Government Kevin B. Kamenetz, is Jewish and has a political base in the Jewish community in his county. But he isn’t well known elsewhere within the state, together with in Montgomery.

Other potential Democratic candidates embody Prince George’s County Govt Rushern L. Baker III, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Rep. John Delaney and state Del. Maggie L. McIntosh (Baltimore).

In an indication of the dangers that Trump could present for Hogan, the governor’s administration drew criticism from Jewish leaders earlier this month when it declined to hyperlink a recent surge of hate-primarily based incidents in Maryland to Trump’s election.

The controversy started when Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford responded to a query at a legislative breakfast organized by Jewish leaders by saying that he didn't know why such incidents have been occurring now — a comment that drew a gasp from the audience.