Advocacy
Jewish Democrats spend close to $300,000 on ads tying GOP youth groups to Hitler praise
By Jewish Life Staff, . Jewish Life.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America is running paid social media ads targeting Young Republicans over antisemitic messages, JTA reported. The ads, which the council says cost close to $300,000, are running on Meta platforms and are aimed at younger Jewish voters in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Iowa, as well as every House district rated a "toss-up" by the Cook Political Report.
What the ads show
The campaign draws on a Politico investigation published last October that exposed a Telegram channel where leaders of Young Republican groups across the country shared messages including "I love Hitler" and discussions of using gas chambers against political opponents. The ads display images of those messages alongside footage of Vice President JD Vance, whose response to the messages was that "we're not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat." A clip of a PBS News anchor warning that "this is the speech of Republicans today who are going to be the leaders of the party tomorrow" also appears.
Haile Soifer, chief executive of the council, said in a statement that the campaign aims to remind "younger Jewish voters across the country of the GOP's dangerous extremism ahead of the midterms." Soifer added: "If young Republican leaders feel emboldened to praise Hitler in group chats, we shouldn't be surprised Republicans under Trump echo, espouse, and amplify extreme rhetoric and antisemitic tropes."
JTA reported that it had asked the Young Republicans for comment and had not immediately heard back.
What followed the original exposé
Two groups were shut down after the Politico story last year, JTA reported: the Young Republican club in Kansas and the statewide Young Republicans organization in New York. The New York Young Republicans Club, a separate New York City group, remained active and hosted a December gala that, the report said, welcomed white nationalists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists. College Republican chapters at the University of Florida and Florida International University have since faced similar scrutiny over comparable messages.
One Young Republican whose "I love Hitler" text appeared in the original investigation has since defended himself, writing, according to JTA, that he is "a guy with a dark sense of humor who sometimes finds himself funnier than he actually is." He accused fellow Republicans of becoming "the party of pearl-clutching," a phrase describing exaggerated outrage at something the speaker considers trivial. Vance used similar language, calling the messages "edgy, offensive jokes."
The broader political context
The ad blitz is part of a wider effort by both parties to cast the other as extreme ahead of the midterm elections. Democrats have pointed to the Young Republican messages and accused Republicans of associating with far-right figures; Republicans have sought to link Democrats to candidates and officials they describe as anti-Israel, such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, JTA reported.
JTA's report does not say how long the ads will run.