Jewish Governor Candidate Loses Key Endorsement After Running Mate Backs BDS

Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss

By Aiden Pink September 4, 2017

A longshot left-wing campaign to win the Democratic nomination in Illinois’s gubernatorial race just got longer after candidate Daniel Biss lost the endorsement of a key member of Congress due to his running mate’s support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Daniel Biss, a Jewish state senator and former math professor running a Bernie Sanders-style campaign, has long trailed in the polls for the party nomination behind businessmen J.B. Pritzker (who is also Jewish) and Chris Kennedy. But Biss still had a few strong endorsements, including from two members of Congress.

Unfortunately for Biss, one of those congressmen, Rep. Brad Schneider (who is also Jewish), announced Sunday that he could no longer support the Biss campaign because of the anti-Israel activism of Biss’s running mate, Chicago alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa.

“This decision is not taken lightly,” Schneider wrote. “I remain hopeful that, as Alderman Ramirez-Rosa learns more about the importance of the U.S.-Israel partnership to both our nations, the unique challenges Israel faces as the only democracy in a very dangerous neighborhood, and the commitment of the vast majority of the Israeli people to peace and a two-state solution, he will reconsider his positions.”

Ramirez-Rosa said in an interview in 2016 that the U.S. should consider “divesting from Israel to support the people of Palestine.” He is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which voted in August to endorse the BDS movement.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO