By JILL COLVIN and JULIE CARR SMYTH, Related Press

NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (AP) — Earlier than digging into his six-egg omelet at a bustling northeast Ohio diner, Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel stopped to bow his head.

“Bless our meals, our time, our dialog, in Jesus’ identify,” mentioned Pastor J.C. Church, who joined Mandel after a marketing campaign occasion at an area church. ”Amen.”

The scene encapsulated Mandel’s marketing campaign technique as he competes in a crowded subject of Republican contenders forward of Ohio’s Might 3 main. He’s a Jewish candidate who makes no secret of his religion, however who’s centering his marketing campaign round evangelical church buildings as he tries to win over non secular, conservative voters.

“Often, when somebody’s working for U.S. Senate or governor or Congress, they’d go to all of the Republican rubber hen dinners and clam bakes and hog roasts, stuff like that,” Mandel mentioned in a current interview between marketing campaign stops. “We’re blowing up the playbook. I’m sidestepping the entire Republican Get together teams and, as an alternative, I’m working a marketing campaign via church buildings.”

Certainly, Mandel’s marketing campaign is steeped in Christianity. His web site contains a image of a cross and an American flag. He pledges to make choices in Washington with “the Bible in a single hand and the Structure within the different.” And he holds most of his marketing campaign occasions at evangelical church buildings.

Raised within the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, Mandel is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, attended B’nai B’rith Perlman summer time camp and was married in Israel. His kids are enrolled at a contemporary orthodox Jewish day faculty the place they research Torah half the day.

Mandel describes himself as a “proud Jew” and dismisses these, together with some GOP main rivals, who’ve portrayed him as insincere in his emphasis of conservative Christian values.

Some critics say they’re extra involved with Mandel’s historical past of controversial statements. He was briefly kicked off Twitter after working a ballot on which “illegals” would commit probably the most crimes, “Muslim Terrorists” or “Mexican Gangbangers,” and has characterised Black Lives Matter protesters as “thugs.”

The Rev. Tim Ahrens, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, mentioned Jesus devoted his life to caring for individuals who had been forsaken and forgotten, “so to make use of his identify to additional divide folks is de facto sick.”

“The issue that I’ve is once you actually take what’s the Christian religion and switch it right into a political marketing campaign, it’s abusive of the religion,” he mentioned.

Nonetheless, Mandel’s alliance is a part of a broader shift in U.S. politics, with Republicans like former President Donald Trump working to win over conservative Christians by aligning themselves with pro-Israel insurance policies. With Jewish People overwhelmingly voting Democratic, in response to Pew Analysis Heart, some conservative Jewish teams have banded with white evangelical Protestants — who’re extra seemingly than Jews to favor stronger U.S. assist for Israel — to type new allegiances on the suitable.

It is unclear whether or not that shift will profit Mandel. In a serious blow to his marketing campaign, Trump endorsed rival JD Vance on Friday.

Mandel sees no contradiction between his religion and his marketing campaign method.

At his occasions, the boyish Marine veteran typically introduces himself by telling the story of how “brave Christians” sheltered his grandmother throughout the Holocaust, saving her life. And he explains that, relating to his assist for Israel, he typically has extra in widespread with evangelical Christians than he does with liberal Jews.

“From my perspective, you already know for me, I’m a proud American, I’m a proud Marine Corps vet and I’m a proud Jew,” he defined. “And once I take a look at the U.S.-Israel relationship, I feel liberal Jews in America needs to be ashamed of themselves for supporting anti-Israel teams like J Avenue. And I feel the most effective pals of the U.S.-Israel relationship in America are evangelical Christians.”

Mandel touts his opposition to abortion and a perception that “there isn’t any separation between church and state,” signaling a willingness to assist insurance policies similar to prayer in public faculties and allowing non-public companies to show away prospects primarily based on their non secular beliefs.

“You recognize, folks need religion instilled within the classroom, within the office, in all facets of society,” Mandel mentioned.

Fred Zeidman, a longtime GOP donor and Mandel supporter who labored on Jewish outreach for a number of Republican presidential campaigns, famous that evangelicals are among the many celebration’s most constant voters.

“If you wish to win an election, you’ve received to go the place the voters are,” he mentioned. “So I feel it’s important for him, if he needs to win, that he lets the faith-based neighborhood know that he thinks like they do. He doesn’t assume like 80% of the Jewish neighborhood that votes Democrat it doesn’t matter what.”

The technique has additionally garnered him consideration. In a world the place tweets equal visibility for a politician, Mandel’s specific tackle non secular matters gained him greater than 27,000 mentions on Twitter from October to December — greater than religion-related mentions for all different candidates, Republican or Democrat, mixed, in response to an evaluation for The Related Press by Zignal Labs.

Stephanie A. Martin, a professor of communications at Southern Methodist College in Dallas, mentioned Mandel’s embrace of Christianity could serve to neutralize worries amongst Republicans about his Jewishness in a rustic the place antisemitism continues to be a potent power.

When Mandel describes his platform as defending “the Judeo-Christian bedrock of America,” he’s invoking what students time period “founders rhetoric,” she mentioned, which creates “a sort of narrative logic that positions evangelicals because the rightful heirs and the rightful defenders of genuine American values.”

“It’s a really good option to orient round a shared understanding of the founding narrative and what it means to have a conventional outlook on what the nation means,” she mentioned, noting that imaginative and prescient leaves little room for variations of historical past that aren’t white, patriarchal and Christian.

A few of Mandel’s longtime Jewish pals and supporters described feeling misplaced after they first attended his occasions. However they mentioned they got here to see the evangelicals as a pure base of assist for Mandel, given their shared assist for Israel, even when his efforts could make others within the Jewish neighborhood really feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t say it feels bizarre, however it positively feels completely different. However an amazing distinction,” mentioned Yoel Mayerfeld, a longtime buddy and supporter who lives in Mandel’s native Beachwood, which boasts the second largest Jewish inhabitants per capita outdoors Israel. Mayerfeld, who’s Jewish, mentioned he’d been to Mandel occasions the place he’d met non secular and evangelical Christians who share a lot of his values.

“I feel it’s actually distinctive. I feel it’s actually lovely in some ways,” he mentioned.

Wealthy Soclof, one other Jewish Mandel buddy and supporter, mentioned he “was admittedly a bit of hesitant, not concerning the idea, however even what it’s going to be like once I received to this occasion.” However he, too, was pleasantly shocked, particularly by the truth that Mandel has not tried to downplay his personal faith.

“I find it irresistible. I can’t inform you if I’d have cherished it 10 years in the past,” he mentioned. “He’s discovering this synergy, in a artistic means, by ’working it via church buildings’ and being embraced by them.”

Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

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