As Election Day approaches, U.S. President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are trending the wrong way, from his vantage point, but Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) told JNS at the Republican convention in Dallas that the party ought to remain focused on the president, though he isn’t on the ballot.
“I wouldn’t shy away from what he’s done internationally,” Scott told JNS. “Look at what he’s done by holding Iran accountable, by making sure NATO is stronger, by holding China accountable.”
“He’s got a lot to brag about,” the senator said.
Fine, who is Jewish, told JNS that “any time you get two days to spread our message, to talk about what we’ve accomplished the last two years and what’s at stake the next two, that’s a winner for our side.”
The war against the Iranian regime is proving unpopular on a national level, including within the party, but Fine thinks that Trump should still tout his decision to confront the Islamic Republic and discuss how dangerous it would be if the U.S.-Israel relationship crumbled if candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America keep winning.
“My constituents pay about 90 cents more a gallon of gas than before the conflict started, and they don’t like it,” Fine told JNS. “I understand that.”
“But dealing with a country that’s killed thousands of Americans and who has said for 47 years they want to create a nuclear weapon to kill us all—we should be grateful that President Trump has been willing to take on that challenge,” the congressman said.
In his speech in Dallas, Trump spoke several times on Thursday about the Iran war. No other speaker mentioned that conflict.
Public sentiment should dictate the party’s messaging as it heads into the midterm elections, but Trump has nothing from which to run, according to Scott.
“The public is saying the prices are too high. Biden caused that. Democrats have caused that,” the senator told JNS in Dallas. “They wanted to destroy the gas industry and push gas prices up. They caused massive inflation. They destroyed the job market, so look what Trump is bringing back.”
‘Republican Party has made strides’
Both Scott and Fine told JNS that the party ought to talk often about its efforts to fight Jew-hatred, which they see as a contrast to Democrats.
“I think it’s an important message for us to tell, because in many places Jewish voters could be swing voters, and they need to understand that the Democratic Party hates them,” Fine told JNS. “I don’t say that with joy or glee. It makes me sad as an American, but if you think the party of Zohran Mamdani, Abdulrahman Mohamed El Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib cares about you, then there’s something wrong with you.”
Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, and Michigan Democratic nominee for Senate Dr. El-Sayed and Reps. Omar (D-Minn.) and Tlaib (D-Mich.) have all accused Israel of “genocide,” among other atrocities, and leaders of major Jewish organizations have said that all four have made antisemitic comments.
According to Fine, the Republican Party is in a better position than it was two years ago at the presidential election-year convention to argue that it should be the home for American Jews.
“When I got elected to Congress 17 months ago, I walked into a house that had two antisemites in it: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie,” Fine said, of two Republicans who opposed Israel frequently and who have been accused of making antisemitic remarks.
“Thanks to Donald J. Trump, we ran one out of town, and we beat the other,” Fine told JNS. “When Thomas Massie ran an amendment to end our relationship with Israel, a majority of Democrats voted to end our relationship.”
“Not a single Republican voted with Massie, so the Republican Party has made strides on this issue,” Fine told JNS.
Both lawmakers told JNS that several countries, led by the United Kingdom, were wrong to say recently that they are cutting off trade with Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem and to weigh sanctioning those communities.
Florida is one of 38 states with anti-boycott laws, which could lead to repercussions for those countries, including loss of state and local contracts.
“The U.K. may go bankrupt over this vanity project in support of Muslim terror,” Fine told JNS. “They are putting a massive burden on their country, on their companies, and I suspect major companies in Britain right now are calling the government and saying ‘You will destroy our business if you continue to support Muslim terror.’”
Scott was governor when Florida first introduced its anti-BDS legislation.
“I hope it gets enforced,” he told JNS. “It’s despicable that governments are doing this.”
