By: Kierra Johnson

As many people continue to use antisemitism to villainize youth and social justice activists, it is important to remember that antisemitism has been on the rise in the United States for years. Especially since the election of Donald Trump, MAGA candidates and the general voting base of the GOP have repeated vile antisemitic tropes, with the most infamous bigotry coming from Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Cameron Hamilton, a Republican candidate for Congressional District 7 in Virginia, recently boosted a fake flier that contained antisemitic and anti-immigrant tropes. As usual with antisemitic rhetoric, the purpose of this type of language was to place blame on Jewish people for a social issue that isn’t even remotely related to them. The flier alleges that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) has a completely fabricated plan to get migrants to vote for Joe Biden, and not even conservative pundits are buying it. 

Not only does the flier look terrible and obviously doctored, but disinformation surrounding migrants voting is beyond extreme. There is no mechanism by which anyone who isn’t a citizen can vote, but GOP candidates know that their base is chock full of racists and xenophobes who are looking for blame rather than solutions. It’s far too easy to rile up the same voters who supported Donald Trump in spite of his many antisemitic blunders, as well as his supporters who have continued to spew bigoted rhetoric toward Jewish people. This includes Trump’s reaction to the 2017 march in Charlottesville, VA,  with white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us”, where he said there were “fine people on both sides”.

Ideally, voters should be able to focus on voting for the progress that they want their representatives to implement. That progress is also under attack by bigots who want to gain the power of representation to push forward an agenda that harms marginalized groups. Jewish people and migrants do not deserve to be targeted, especially by anyone seeking positions of power. If you live in Virginia’s 7th district, be sure to keep up with the results of your district’s primary and make a voting plan in order to put a responsible person in the seat. If you do not, use any platform you can to uplift the Democratic candidate(s) for Virginia congress, because if people like Hamilton gain more power in Virginia, all voters will be affected.