NEW YORK (JTA) — Sixty-nine percent of Florida Jews say they will likely vote for President Obama, as opposed to 25 percent for Republican nominee Mitt Romney, according to a new survey.
The American Jewish Committee survey, which was conducted by QEV Analytics, reached 254 registered Jewish voters in the key swing state between Sept. 7 and 9. The AJC did not divulge the survey’s margin of error.
A majority of Florida Jews (54 percent) said the economy was most important issue in deciding how they would vote, and another 16 percent cited health care. National security, U.S.-Israel relations, Social Security and abortion each were named by 5 percent of Florida Jews as their most important issue. Only 1 percent named the Iranian nuclear program as their top issue.
Even when asked about their second and third most important issues, Florida Jews prioritized domestic concerns. Only 9 percent cited Israel as their second most important issue, and 14 percent cited it as their third most important. Iran’s nuclear program was cited as the second most important issue by only 1 percent and third most important by only 2 percent.
Still, 79 percent said they were “very concerned” about the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
Majorities of respondents said they approved of Obama’s handling of every issue on which they were queried and that they trusted Democrats more than Republicans to handle each issue. Obama received the highest approval on national security, health care, Social Security and abortion.
His levels of disapproval were highest on Iran’s nuclear program, U.S.-Israel relations and the economy, with 36 percent disapproving of his handling of the first issue, and 33 percent disapproving of his handling of the latter two issues.
Florida Jews gave low marks to Romney’s running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), with 49 percent disapproving strongly and another 10 percent disapproving somewhat.
Of those who said they don’t know or are undecided how they would vote for president, half said they were leaning toward Obama and the other half repeated that they were undecided.
