On Tuesday, August 6th, the eyes of the country were on the 1st Congressional District of Missouri to see if Wesley Bell could beat incumbent Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic primary election. Agudath Israel of America and its staff were also closely watching the Missouri election results. Their focus, however, was not on who won (Bell did), but on voter turnout. An historically high Orthodox turnout.
Agudath Israel of America is a 501 (c) 3 religious nonprofit and does not support or oppose candidates for elected office. As it does in many states across the country, Agudah spearheaded a nonpartisan voter registration and turnout effort targeting the Orthodox community of St. Louis. Led by Rabbi Ari Weisenfeld, director of Agudath Israel’s office of state relations, the effort was wildly successful thanks to a large team of dedicated volunteers. Together, they contacted every member of the Orthodox community located in the 1st and 2nd Congressional districts and worked to ensure that each family member was registered and then encouraged to vote early.
The Orthodox turnout rate doubled compared to the 2022 primary race and far exceeded the turnout for the rest of St. Louis County. A detailed analysis of the early voter data showed that more than 49% of eligible voters in the Orthodox community in District 1 voted early compared to the 5.7% early voting rate of the entire county. Even including election day, the turnout in the county was still under 30% while the Orthodox turnout was above 70% (and likely higher once all the data is reviewed).
“Agudah works with many communities on similar efforts but the St. Louis community has raised the bar,” said Rabbi Weisenfeld. “The Orthodox Jewish communities in St. Louis and Chesterfield proved that they are an engaged, organized, and educated constituency that shows up to the polls.”
“The keys to our success was having all the rabbis and community leaders delivering a unified message of the importance of voting and the constant guidance and assistance from the national Agudah and our local director, Hillel Anton,” said Rabbi Josh Bregman, a local community leader and one of the campaign’s co-chairs.
“Elected officials pay attention to which individuals and communities vote and make their decisions accordingly.” said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel’s national director of government affairs. “The real winner of the election is the Jewish community,”
To learn more about Agudah’s Get Out The Vote efforts go to agudah.org/vote
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One Response
Nice to see comm get togethor but in al honesty ..Won by 7000 votes , aprox how many frum votes are out there? Majority would not vote for in either case, and 30% didn’t vote , nice but not enough to make a dif.