By james art In a volatile Arizona district home to a sizable Jewish community, Amish Shah, a former state lawmaker, mounts a formidable challenge to Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), who is among the most vulnerable Republicans up for re-election.
Shah, who served in the Arizona state legislature for five years before launching his bid for Congress, remains somewhat unknown to members of the Jewish community in northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale — who make up nearly 9 percent of the district and could be decisive in a close race that Democrats are seeking to regain the majority.
Unlike this summer’s Democratic primary runner-up, Andrei Cherny — a Jewish activist who has engaged in concerted work with Jewish and pro-Israel voters — Shah claims to have fewer long-term community ties and maintains a more muted profile on key issues such as Israel.
Still, although he has left little room to define himself, Shah’s supporters describe him as a staunch ally of the Jewish community and a staunch defender of Israel, which he visited in 2019 as a state legislator on a trip that “helped shape” the his “worldview,” he said in a policy paper on the Middle East written last spring.
“He’s a strong pro-Israel candidate” and “extremely open to the Jewish community,” Aaron Lieberman, a Jewish Democrat in Phoenix who served with Shah in the Arizona Legislature and joined him on the trip to Israel, said in an interview. Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “I saw him in the Statehouse where he voted with us on every issue that came up,” he elaborated, calling Shah a “pragmatic” lawmaker dedicated to passing bipartisan legislation.
Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democrat from Tucson who also served with Shah in the state Capitol, said he has “always been very supportive of the Jewish community and Israel,” noting that he was “one of the first to sign on” when she led the delegation to Israel five years ago. “I know that if elected, he will continue to be a great ally and supporter of one of the most important issues for Jewish voters.”
Hernandez serves on the board of the Democratic Majority for Israel, whose political arm supports Shah’s campaign.
A campaign spokesman for Shah, a 47-year-old physician, said his team had engaged in “relationship organizing” to help boost Jewish turnout in the race, using a term that describes how supporters use personal connections. to reach potentially persuasive Jewish voters. “Dr. Shah definitely takes nothing for granted,” said the JI spokesperson.
Debra Stein, a Scottsdale political activist who directs outreach and strategic partnerships for the Arizona branch of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which has endorsed Shah, said in an email to JI that the former state lawmaker “understands the importance of the district’s Jewish population and has conducted targeted contact through a series of telephone banks to Jewish voters in the district.’
On behalf of the campaign, JDCA volunteers aided such efforts “to talk about how Dr. Shah is a strong ally of the Jewish community and of Israel,” Stein said.
In a Middle East position paper obtained by JI this week and drafted in April, the Shah largely adopted a mainstream democratic approach to Israel, voicing support, among other things, for continued US aid to Israel without “further restrictions” , as he put it. He also supported Israel in its battle against Hamas in Gaza, although he expressed reservations about the war, citing his religion.
“I am a Jain and our first principle and most precious core value is ahimsameaning non-violence embracing all living beings,” wrote Shah, who is Indian-American. “However, I believe that war is necessary under a certain narrow set of circumstances.”
Shah supports war “only when a ruling political entity or group embraces the rhetoric of killing innocent people and then demonstrates a willingness to carry out such a program,” he says, placing Israel’s efforts to eliminate Hamas in that category. “I am appalled by the lack of international pressure to confront and defeat Hamas,” he adds. “Israel is almost alone in its efforts, with the notable exception of the United States.”
In his effort to unseat Schweikert, who was redrawn in a highly competitive district last cycle when he won a seventh term by less than a percentage point, Shah faces a veteran incumbent who was once considered a renegade conservative but has softened his stance as he seeks to woo moderate voters.
Shah and his allies focused their attacks on Schweikert’s approach to abortion, a major issue in the state, while the congressman and GOP super PACs, including the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Victory Fund, sought to portray his opponent as a far-left radical who is weak on border security and supports “socialized medicine.”
Like most Democrats running in swing districts this cycle, Shah has taken a harder line on immigration, saying in one ad that he has “worked with both parties to increase border security” — a claim Republicans have rejected as misleading.
Although Israel has not featured prominently in the race, Schweikert, 62, is endorsed by AIPAC’s political action committee — which notes on its online political portal that he “has become a supporter of US-Israel relations over the you are in the House of Representatives.
Still, some domestic AIPAC allies, which have long promoted a policy of supporting so-called “friendly incumbents” for re-election, say they have no concerns about Shah’s record, even though they were not aware of his policy on Israel until recently and are not knew of his Jewish reach in the district.
“Not a single person has contacted me with concerns about their position on Israel,” said a Scottsdale Jewish leader who supports Schweikert but believes he will be unseated in a race where limited polls have shown a close battle. “I think he’s going to lose and I’m fine with that.”
Schweikert’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from JI.
At the end of his position paper on Israel, Shah encourages readers to connect with him, “even if we disagree,” he says, adding, “My commitment to dialogue and understanding is firm and starts on a personal level.”