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 a neighborhood church. ”Amen.”

The scene encapsulated Mandel’s marketing campaign technique as he competes in a crowded discipline 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.

“Normally, when somebody’s working for U.S. Senate or governor or Congress, they’d go to all of the Republican rubber rooster 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 by way of church buildings.”

Certainly, Mandel’s marketing campaign is steeped in Christianity. His web site includes 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 examine 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 essentially 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 many who had been forsaken and forgotten, “so to make use of his identify to additional divide folks is basically sick.”

“The issue that I’ve is whenever 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 Individuals overwhelmingly voting Democratic, in line with Pew Analysis Heart, some conservative Jewish teams have banded with white evangelical Protestants — who’re extra doubtless than Jews to favor stronger U.S. assist for Israel — to kind new allegiances on the appropriate.

It’s 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 strategy.

At his occasions, the boyish Marine veteran usually introduces himself by telling the story of how “brave Christians” sheltered his grandmother throughout the Holocaust, saving her life. And he explains that, on the subject of his assist for Israel, he usually 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 believe liberal Jews in America must be ashamed of themselves for supporting anti-Israel teams like J Avenue. And I believe the perfect pals of the U.S.-Israel relationship in America are evangelical Christians.”

Mandel touts his opposition to abortion and a perception that “there is no such thing as a separation between church and state,” signaling a willingness to assist insurance policies comparable to prayer in public faculties and allowing non-public companies to show away clients based mostly on their non secular beliefs.

“, folks need religion instilled within the classroom, within the office, in all elements 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 get together’s most constant voters.

“If you wish to win an election, you’ve obtained to go the place the voters are,” he mentioned. “So I believe it’s important for him, if he needs to win, that he lets the faith-based group know that he thinks like they do. He doesn’t suppose like 80% of the Jewish group 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 explicit 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 line with 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 might serve to neutralize worries amongst Republicans about his Jewishness in a rustic the place antisemitism continues to be a potent pressure.

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 type 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 standard 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 once 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 might make others within the Jewish group really feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t say it feels bizarre, however it undoubtedly feels totally different. However a fantastic distinction,” mentioned Yoel Mayerfeld, a longtime pal and supporter who lives in Mandel’s native Beachwood, which boasts the second largest Jewish inhabitants per capita exterior 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 believe it’s actually distinctive. I believe it’s actually lovely in some ways,” he mentioned.

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

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