Gillum, King are not a threat to Jews
In recent days, thousands of Jews (including myself ) across Florida received an unsolicited text message containing an alarming accusation: that Chris King, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor — and through association, Andrew Gillum — is anti-Semitic. The spam message linked to a tabloid site — which I will refrain from calling news — where an article referred to some comments King made after losing a student government election at Harvard University 20 years ago. In the comments, King implied that the skeptical press attention his campaign received was the result of his Christian faith. Though characterized as new, King has actually addressed these comments previously, referring to them as “stupid” and “insensitive,” a characterization with which I wholeheartedly agree. The comments were hurtful and ignorant, and I was glad to see King address his mistakes instead of making excuses for them, or worse, doubling down, which is what we have become accustomed to in today’s political climate.
So, how did I get this text message, anyway? How did they know to send it to me? As a #millennial, I am used to conducting most of my conversations over text, but this was my first time receiving a campaign attack ad this way. My best guess is that it was probably not the Ron DeSantis campaign itself, but a dark money group. Whichever nefarious group is behind this shameful smear tactic probably used data mining to collect names and phone numbers and then used good, old-fashioned stereotyping to send the message to “Jewish sounding” names.
Looking at a list of names, picking out ones you think are Jewish, and assuming we all think the same, offends me far more than the accusation contained within the message. It is strange to me that a group would go to such lengths to use offensive stereotypes to identify Jews and then claim that is a threat to the Jewish community. The repugnant people behind this tactic think so little of Jewish voters that they believe we are naive enough to miss the bigger picture and buy into this shameful strategy. Stated more clearly: They think that Jews are dumb, single-issue voters who can be swayed by a baseless allegation in a text message. antiSemitic.
Chris King’s words at the time were insensitive. He apologized for them, and I believe him when he says they do not reflect the person he is today. My confidence in this stems largely from my personal interactions with him on several occasions. On one of those occasions, the Jewish community invited the seven main gubernatorial primary candidates from both major parties to come speak to us, and we were glad to have King enthusiastically take us up on that offer.
Anti-Semitism is a big deal, and it is unfortunately occurring in politics more and more. On the right, it’s “very fine people” — also known as white supremacists and Neo-Nazis — marching through the streets chanting that Jews will not replace them. On the left, it is often the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. These deserve — and receive — condemnation from political leaders from both sides.
These smears are not just limited to King, though. Gillum has already faced accusations of supporting BDS through association, despite his clear and unequivocal stance in opposition to the BDS movement and in support of Israel. To accuse King and Gillum of representing an existential threat to the Jewish community in this way is not only deliberately misleading, shameful and disgusting; it is also dangerous.
Anti-Semitism is slowly gaining power in part because of deceitful campaign tactics like this. Targeting the Jewish community with these attacks does a disservice to the people who actually fight real, pervasive anti-Semitism every day. Part of my job is to fight the spread of that hate, and forcing me to address these disingenuous claims makes that harder, not easier. When we allow people to wantonly throw around unfounded accusations in this way, the issue starts to lose its gravity, and genuine threats to the safety and security of Jews and other marginalized groups can more easily rise unchallenged.
I have seen no evidence that the Democratic or the Republican nominees are anti-Semites. I hope DeSantis will swiftly and unequivocally condemn these tactics and make it clear that he does not approve of targeting and stereotyping any community in this abhorrent way. While insensitive comments about Jews offend me, falsely labeling King and Gillum as anti-Semitic to score political points offends me much more, not only as a Jewish person, but as a Floridian who values honesty and decency in our political discourse.
This gutter-level politics has no place in Florida — or anywhere.