BY: ELIANA JONSHON 6 JUL 2026 :::::::------------------- Anti-Israel radicals are ascendant in the Democratic Party. Not so in the GOP, where primary voters remain deeply supportive of the Jewish state, a new Free Beacon poll finds. The poll, which was conducted by Echelon Insights in early June and surveyed more than 1,100 likely GOP primary voters across the country, found that likely Republican primary voters prefer a candidate who supports a strong U.S.-Israel relationship by a margin of 57 percentage points. They also prefer a candidate who explicitly denounces antisemitism by 52 points, I write in a piece summarizing the poll’s findings. Candidates who describe Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal, take steps to isolate Israel economically, and vote against congressional resolutions denouncing antisemitism are less popular. Respondents say they are less likely to back such candidates by margins of 25 points, 43 points, and 43 points, respectively. The poll also found that Republican voters were supportive of the war in Iran by a whopping 59-point margin. But they remain focused on the economy and immigration: Asked to identify the biggest issue facing the country today, the cost of living, immigration, and jobs and the economy topped the list at 31 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent, respectively. The state of the GOP is a striking contrast to the anti-Israel sentiment that seems to be overtaking the Democratic Party. An April 2026 Pew Research poll found that 8 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have an unfavorable view of Israel, while just 4 percent of Muslims view Israel in a positive light. That poll came months before socialist candidates, united by their opposition to Israel and America, won Democratic primaries in New York and Colorado and met with little protest from Democratic leaders. READ MORE: GOP Primary Voters Remain Deeply Supportive of Israel, Poll Finds ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-27!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff295e9b2-b34a-424a-bca6-54b34f155caf_1536x1024.jpeg Josh Turek (Charlie Neibergall/Getty Images) In March 2022, the Iowa City School District’s “Department of Equity” trained teachers to “challenge” their “bias and privilege” in courses like “Ethnomathematics: The Study of Math as a Cultural Activity.” Two years later, Iowa’s Josh Turek, who describes himself as a “common-sense moderate Democrat” running for Senate in a red state, voted to protect such initiatives in the state’s universities and K-12 schools, the Free Beacon’s Collin Anderson and Peter Hasson report. Turek “voted against a trio of anti-DEI bills between April 2024 and May 2025, including two that became law.” One of the bills prohibited public universities from hiring DEI officers. A second barred state funding for DEI offices and initiatives at both the college and K-12 levels. And a third would have prohibited colleges and universities from requiring students to take any “diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory related course” to graduate. “The bills prompted Iowa’s public universities to scale back race-based initiatives,” write Anderson and Hasson. “The University of Northern Iowa amended its 2023-28 Strategic Plan to remove portions calling to ‘increase diversity’ among faculty and students and increase graduation and retention rates among ‘traditionally marginalized students’ … The updated version called to increase those ‘success rates’ among ‘all students.’” The bills also took a sledgehammer to DEI trainings like those in Iowa City, whose former director of equity left the state to join Minneapolis Public Schools. “Turek’s votes appear at odds with his ‘moderate’ image. Turek describes himself as a ‘prairie populist’ and ‘common-sense’ lawmaker who can appeal to ‘Iowans of all political stripes.’ But two of Turek’s votes defending DEI came after President Donald Trump placed opposition to such ‘woke’ initiatives at the center of his campaign, which carried Iowa by 13 points.” READ MORE: Iowa’s Josh Turek, Self-Described ‘Common-Sense Moderate Democrat,’ Voted To Protect Race-Based DEI Programs in Iowa Schools /// . . .