Republican Jewish Coalition

Matthew Brooks, Executive Director

Matthew Brooks has served as the chief executive officer for the Republican Jewish Coalition since 1990 and is also the RJC’s spokesperson. In addition to his roles at the RJC, Brooks serves as the executive director for the Jewish Policy Center. At the start of Brooks’ political career, he managed Jack Kemp’s presidential campaign in New England. 

Under Brooks’ leadership, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s super PAC gave $2 million to support Dr. Mehmet Oz’s 2022 Senate campaign based on his support for Israel, while Oz touted himself as “100 percent pro-life” and an advocate for “a secure border with a barrier, whether that is a physical wall or one patrolled by technological advances.” Oz has been largely denounced by the medical community for giving reckless medical advice and profiting off of products he claimed to be miracle cures. According to a 2014 British Medical Journal study, out of the 80 recommendations from Oz’s television show that researchers analyzed, fewer than half were backed by evidence.

Norm Coleman, National Chairman

Norm Coleman has served as the national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition since 2017. The Intercept described him as “one of the Republican Party’s biggest fundraisers.” One of Coleman’s biggest achievements was founding the influential Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, where he currently serves as board chair. 

• CLF is closely aligned with the current Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Founded in 2011, the CLF is affiliated with the American Action Network, a nonprofit advocacy organization that was formed to oppose President Obama’s legislative agenda. Together, both groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
• CLF was the second-highest spender during the 2022 midterm election, according to OpenSecrets, and was instrumental in Republicans retaking the House of Representatives that year.
• During the bitter contest for House Speakership in January 2023, CLF cut a deal with the Club for Growth, another right-wing group, to shore up support for Kevin McCarthy. The agreement forced the CLF to abstain from political spending in open Republican primaries, allowing far-right groups, like the Club for Growth, to have greater control over the composition of the Republican caucus.

Coleman is also the chair of the dark money group the American Action Network, which has embraced the fringes of the political right over the years, including the far-right House Freedom Caucus and former President Donald Trump.

Prior to founding the Congressional Leadership Fund and leading the American Action Network, Coleman was a U.S. Senator for Minnesota from 2002 to 2009. 

• During his term in the Senate, Coleman voted in favor of legislation prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers.
• Coleman supported placing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. In 2004, he said he would vote for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, stating that he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. Coleman told the Associated Press that he would have preferred a bill that “does not force the discrimination,” but said he would support the constitutional ban anyway.
• Coleman also supported numerous pieces of legislation restricting access to abortion, including an amendment to prohibit funds in a bill from being given to groups that perform abortions when the pregnant individual’s life is not in danger. 

Coleman’s originally opposed Donald Trump’s candidacy for president, stating, “Trump is a bigot, a misogynist, a fraud, a bully, and a con artist, in that order.” However, once Trump became president and relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO, Coleman flipped to support him.

Alex Siegel, Deputy Executive Director

Alex Siegel has worked at the Republican Jewish Coalition since 2013, serving as the deputy executive director since 2016. Prior to that, he was the RJC’s national grassroots director. Siegel began his political career with internships at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing advocacy group funded by the Kochs that uses its extensive network and mass media to promote libertarian ideals. Siegel also interned with the libertarian think tank, the Leadership Institute. 

Gabriel Groisman, Board Member

Republican Jewish Coalition board member Gabriel Groisman previously served in the municipal government of Bal Harbour, Florida, serving as a city council member before serving as mayor from 2016 to 2022. 

While the Republican Jewish Coalition proclaims to be in favor of small government, Groisman successfully advanced a law imposing restrictions on businesses that disinvested from Israeli companies based on human rights concerns for Palestinians. 

• As a city council member, Groisman wrote the legislation that made Bal Harbour the first place in the nation to pass an anti-Boycott, Divest, and Sanction ordinance by barring businesses that participate in the BDS movement from contracting with the municipality. Groisman stated in 2018 that more than 50 cities and the state of Florida had adopted similar laws.

Sheldon Adelson, Former Board Chair (Deceased January 2021)

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson was the board chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Adelson was the chairman and owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, which owns and operates businesses including the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. 

The Adelsons have been mega-donors to the Republican Party for decades and were some of Trump’s biggest financial backers in 2016 and 2020. 

• During the 2020 election cycle, they “set a new record for donations from individuals in a single election cycle,” giving $172.7 million to Republican candidates and conservative groups. 
• The Adelsons were top funders of Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential runs, donating nearly $150 million to his campaign. The couple’s enormous investment in Trump helped put Sheldon Adelson “at the very top of the list of both access and influence in the Trump administration.” 

In 2007, Sheldon and his wife, Miriam Adelson, founded the Adelson Family Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that funds anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ organizations. 

• The foundation has donated over $4 million to Christians United for Israel, founded and run by anti-LGBTQ Pastor John Hagee, who condemned same-sex marriage laws and said that Hurricane Katrina was the “judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” for hosting a gay pride parade. 
• In 2020, the foundation gave $1 million to the Middle East Media and Research Institute, a group that has been criticized for portraying fringe and extremist voices as mainstream Islam.

Lowering Taxes for the Wealthy 

The Republican Jewish Coalition staunchly opposes government regulations, social welfare programs, and taxes. The group advocates for minimizing taxes and government regulations, which it calls “an impediment to expansion” for businesses. 

Notably, the RJC’s largest benefactor was the late billionaire casino mogul and longtime RJC board member Sheldon Adelson. When Adelson died in 2021, RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said that in addition to Adelson’s generosity toward the organization, “much of the RJC’s innovation and impact over the last few years were made possible by his vision and leadership.”

Climate Denial and Opposition to Climate Action

The Republican Jewish Coalition pushed Congress and the Trump administration to approve the permit to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline, a move that environmental and Indigenous groups and activists heavily criticized. The organization has since criticized President Joe Biden for blocking the development of the dangerous pipeline.

• Friends of the Earth explained how the pipeline could have devastating effects on air and water quality, wildlife, and public health, as it would “cross rivers, streams and wetlands that are a source for drinking water for millions of people and provide habitat for at least 20 rare and endangered species.”  
• The RJC has spread disinformation about climate science, including promoting a Fox News opinion piece in its weekly newsletter claiming that, “expanded natural gas production under Trump helped cut US carbon dioxide emissions to their lowest level since 1985.” The author of the Fox News piece cites the alt-right outlet, Breitbart, as its “fact-checking” source.
• The RJC has also given a platform to powerful GOP officials who oppose climate legislation such as the Green New Deal. At an RJC event in 2019, President Donald Trump made outlandish claims about the Green New Deal being a “$100 trillion” package that proposes building “trains to Europe, Hawaii and Australia” and would only allow people to have one car. The Washington Post noted that Trump’s claim about a $100 trillion price tag was likely based on a Tweet by a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank that frequently denies climate science.

Anti-LGBTQ Rights

The Republican Jewish Coalition claims to “respect differences of opinion” on issues such as abortion rights, climate change, LGBTQ rights, and gun regulation. The group says that “the RJC membership and Board of Directors are as divided as the rest of America on these issues.” However, a closer inspection of the candidates endorsed by the RJC shows that the organization overwhelmingly supports candidates that have ultraconservative stances on these issues. On the issue of LGBTQ rights, the RJC’s endorsees express a particular disdain for the trans community and the majority of them have voted against legislation that would expand protections from discrimination for the LGBTQ community.

• Of the seven Senate candidates the RJC endorsed, six are strongly opposed to LGBTQ rights, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) being the one exception.
• Of the 25 House candidates the RJC endorsed in 2022, 18 of them were demonstrably opposed to LGBTQ rights and protections from discrimination, as evidenced by their past statements and voting records on LGBTQ rights legislation such as the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act. One candidate, Derrick Van Orden, said he opposed the Equality Act because “it tramples on deeply held religious beliefs, and genuine concern for our children who will be obliged to share locker rooms w/ those born with a different biological sex.”

Reproductive Rights

Despite the RJC’s insistence that its membership includes diverse ideologies on issues such as abortion, six of the seven Senate candidates the RJC endorsed in 2022 strongly opposed abortion, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) being the one exception.

Zero of the RJC’s 25 House endorsees support full access to abortion and the majority of them support making all abortions illegal with very few and narrow exceptions, Most of the RJC’s candidates celebrated the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

Efforts to Undermine Education

The Republican Jewish Coalition supports public school vouchers and “school choice,” a concept that originally developed as a reactionary effort to enshrine racial segregation and abolish public schools. The RJC has expressed support for federal legislation the Student Empowerment Act, the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through Education Act, and the Education Opportunities Act — all of which would ultimately increase inequity despite their optimistic names.

Like other conservative groups, the RJC considers “school choice” and school voucher programs as vital for protecting educational opportunities and “student empowerment” among America’s children. However, many studies, including one from 2022 covered by The Washington Post, found that states that pass school choice legislation saw a degradation in the public school systems. According to the report, “more than half of states with vouchers have at least one program that pays out more than 50 percent of what would have been spent to educate the child in a public school.” In New Hampshire, for example, the public school system lost more than $8 million in a matter of months after the state instituted an education savings account program to funnel public funding to students’ private education.

The Republican Jewish Coalition has also given a platform to MAGA Republicans to spread the right-wing’s manufactured hysteria over critical race theory supposedly being taught in public schools. The Washington Post characterizes the growing anti-critical race theory movement as a “conservative backlash” to efforts to increase anti-racism initiatives in education. 

• At a campaign event with the Republican Jewish Coalition in September 2022, Nevada’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Adam Laxalt, “criticized the inclusion of gender and social issues in schools” and said he would support legislation “defunding critical race theory.” As the Trump campaign’s Nevada co-chairman, Laxalt was a key figure in the campaign’s unsuccessful attempts to stop counting votes in the state’s 2020 presidential election.

At the RJC’s annual leadership meeting in November 2021, Trump’s former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, spoke on a panel with former White House Press Secretary and RJC board member Ari Fleischer, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway. Part of their discussion included Republicans’ victories in recent local elections, where the right wing successfully weaponized the idea of “parental choice” to fearmonger about critical race theory, spread anti-trans rhetoric, and oppose mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The RJC’s avenues of influence include annual leadership conferences that serve as a convener for powerful GOP officials, pressuring party leaders to manipulate committee assignments in Republicans’ favor, adding revolving door insiders as board members who have previously or will go on to hold high-level government positions, running smear campaigns against nominees appointed by Democrats, and lobbying on foreign policy and other issues. In addition to its influence on legislators and policy, the RJC boasted that in the 2020 elections, “every Republican who flipped a Democratic-held district was backed by the RJC PAC.”

The RJC’s influence in Washington rose during the George W. Bush administration following Bush’s appearance at the RJC’s 20th-anniversary event in 2005, allowing the group to rise to “the forefront of efforts within the Jewish community to work closely with a GOP White House and U.S. Congress.” The RJC describes its legislative affairs program as “highly successful,” and also runs regional outreach programs, which it uses to convey the GOP platform to the Jewish community, particularly on issues relating to Israel, national security, and economic policy. Between 2000 and 2005, the group expanded its grassroots base from six chapters to 41 chapters. 

Annual Leadership Meetings

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference is a meeting ground for the most powerful conservative lawmakers and strategists. The RJC boasts that its annual conference “has become a key stop on the road to the White House for aspiring GOP presidential candidates.” Since the Trump administration began, the RJC has welcomed many MAGA-world figures as speakers, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also spoke at the RJC’s 2022 conference in Las Vegas.

Foreign Policy

The Republican Jewish Coalition is a longstanding supporter of Israel and has opposed a warming of relations with Iran, including the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The group also opposed Biden re-entering the U.S. into the UN Human Rights Council and World Health Organization in 2021.

In 2018, the RJC advocated for the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act, which was one piece of the Trump administration’s plan to end all assistance to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is a critical source of support for Palestinian refugees. The Taylor Force Martyr Act was introduced by ultraconservative Senators including Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) and was signed into law by Trump. The Republican Jewish Coalition said it helped “gather support for the original Taylor Force Act and encouraged Senators to co-sponsor the current bill,” and RJC National Chairman Norm Coleman applauded Cotton for introducing the legislation.

At least one legislator publicly referenced the RJC’s position on the Iran Sanctions Preservation Act in 2021. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) noted in a press release about the act’s introduction that “the legislation is supported by the Republican Jewish Coalition.”

Committees

The Republican Jewish Coalition has repeatedly stated that it “look[s] forward to continuing our close work with Speaker McCarthy and the new Republican majority in the 118th Congress.” 

In January 2023, RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks admonished the Republicans who did not support Rep. Kevin McCarthy for the House Speakership, calling them “infidels” who were causing discord within the party. However, after those same “infidel” MAGA Republicans forced McCarthy to make huge concessions to win Speaker of the House in January 2023, the RJC joined dozens of other conservative and libertarian groups in celebrating McCarthy’s — and the far-right’s — win. 

Push to Remove Democrat Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Less than a month into the 118th Congress, House Republicans delivered the RJC a major victory in its longtime goal of removing Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from her committee assignment. Many considered the move to be a politically-motivated backlash against Democrats for removing MAGA extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments in the previous session.

• For four years, the Republican Jewish Coalition pressured House Republican leadership to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over comments Omar made in 2019 criticizing the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians, which some said invoked antisemitic tropes. Omar apologized and emphasized that she supports Jewish communities while remaining critical of Israel’s government. In addition, House Democrats passed a resolution denouncing the remarks, which Omar supported. 
• In January 2023, the RJC praised Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) for introducing a resolution to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The group celebrated when the House passed the resolution to remove Omar on February 2, 2023, with zero Democrats voting in favor. 
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pointed out the hypocrisy of Republicans elevating Greene to some of the highest committees, including the House Committee on Oversight and Committee on Homeland Security, and said the attacks on Omar were “about targeting women of color in the United States of America.”

Outlets such as Vanity Fair pointed out the hypocrisy of House Republicans’ decision, noting that Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans have defended MAGA extremists who have supported far more egregious and malicious attacks on the Jewish community and non-white populations. 

• House GOP members, including McCarthy,  defended their fellow Republican colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene when she was stripped of her committee assignments in February 2021, after her conspiratorial Facebook posts from 2018 and 2019 surfaced. In these posts, Greene suggested executing Democratic officials, supported conspiracy theories about mass shootings like the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School being staged, promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, and called 9/11 an inside job. 
• The Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement in January 2021 condemning Greene because she “repeatedly used offensive language in long online video diatribes, promoted bizarre political conspiracy theories, and refused to admit a mistake after posing for photos with a long-time white supremacist leader.” Despite this damning list of Greene’s fringe beliefs and support for white supremacists, the RJC stopped short of calling for Greene to be removed from her committees. 
• During Greene’s congressional run in 2020, she was still seen as a dangerous liability to the Republican Party and McCarthy denounced her as too radical. Three years later, McCarthy “gushed to a friend about the ironclad bond” he had forged with Greene and said he “will always take care of her,” according to The New York Times. 
• Ultimately, only 11 House Republicans voted to remove Greene from her committees after the surfacing of her social media posts. Kevin McCarthy called the decision a “partisan power grab” by Democrats. When Republicans took control of the House in January 2023, McCarthy restored Greene and Gosar to their committee assignments. Once again, the RJC did not call for Greene to face political consequences for her past behavior or condemn McCarthy for putting her in powerful positions in the House.

In addition to the group’s hypocrisy concerning Greene, the Republican Jewish Coalition did not condemn former President Donald Trump after he dined with white nationalist, Nick Fuentes, and noted antisemite and Holocaust denier, Kanye West, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in November 2022. Fuentes openly describes himself as a “Christian nationalist” and, through his live streams and events, has helped pull the Republican Party to the extreme far-right. 

• The RJC’s initial statement after the dinner condemned Fuentes and West for their “virulent antisemitism” but did not mention Trump by name, instead calling “on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them.” 
• After being criticized for neglecting to address Trump specifically, the RJC executive director Matt Brooks tweeted that the group did not mention Trump because it was “obviously” about the dinner. He did not follow up with a statement directly calling out Trump.
• RJC board member Ari Fleischer said he accepted Trump’s statement that he did not know who Nick Fuentes was prior to the dinner and stated, “I do not consider Trump an anti-semite and remain appreciative of his deep support for Israel.” 
• Additionally, at an RJC event in 2019, Trump mocked Rep. Omar the day after a Trump supporter was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Omar in a call to her office. That same week, a separate report was released showing that Omar had been the target of a bomb threat earlier that year. Despite the threats against Omar, at least one of which was spurred by his supporters, Trump singled out Omar and told the RJC attendees that “she doesn’t like Israel.” He then told the audience that, “the Democrats have allowed the stain of anti-semitism to take root in their party.”

Board Members

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s board includes several high-level GOP officials: 

• David Friedman, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration and oversaw the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, was elected to the RJC’s board in January 2022.
• RJC board member, Ari Fleischer, previously served as the White House Press Secretary under the George W. Bush administration. Fleischer was also the spokesperson and senior communications manager for the Bush/Cheney campaign.
• RJC’s former chairman, Sam Fox, was the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium under the George W. Bush administration.
• Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), joined the RJC’s board in December 2022 after losing in the gubernatorial election in November.

Nominees

The Republican Jewish Coalition asks Senators to oppose nominees for Cabinet members, advisors, and judges “who have a background of radical, liberal, anti-Israel, or otherwise troubling statements of action.”

The group encouraged Republicans and Democrats to reject President Joe Biden’s nomination of Sarah Margon for Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department because “she holds views that are far outside the mainstream regarding Israel” and supports the BDS movement. Margon, who denied that she supports BDS, served as head of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, which has been critical of the Israeli government over its treatment of Palestinians.

At Margon’s nomination hearing, Sen. James Risch (R-ID) cited Morgan’s tweet from 2018 in which she expressed support for Airbnb after it was reported that the company would “remove all properties in Israeli settlements built on the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, after years of accusations that the company was benefitting from rentals in the illegal outposts.” The Guardian said Airbnb’s decision “will be seen as a victory for the Palestinian-led anti-occupation movement.” Airbnb’s announcement followed a report by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch detailing how the business had negative consequences for Palestinians.

American Action Network and the Congressional Leadership Fund

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s national chairman, Norm Coleman, is also the chair of the right-wing advocacy group the American Action Network. A 2013 report found that from 2009 to 2017, the Republican Jewish Coalition gave the American Action Network $4 million.

Conceived as a conservative counterpart to the progressive Center for American Progress, the American Action Network largely grew out of Republicans’ dissatisfaction with President Obama’s presidency and the rising tea party movement in 2010. Although it was originally perceived as less ideological than other right-wing advocacy groups, AAN has embraced the fringes of the political right over the years, including the far-right House Freedom Caucus and former President Donald Trump.

The American Action Network is loosely connected to the Congressional Leadership Fund, one of the dominant super PACs in the American political landscape that Norm Coleman founded with House Republican leaders in late 2011. Coleman currently serves as the board chair of CLF. The group was the second-highest outside spender in the 2022 election cycle, the third-highest in the 2020 election cycle, and the second-highest in the 2018 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.

Since their inception, AAN and CLF have poured hundreds of millions to secure Republican victories:

• The American Action Network poured more than $26 million into the 2010 midterms, causing a profound shift in the American political landscape with the rise of the Tea Party Movement, which political analysts have characterized as a backlash to the election of Barack Obama.
• In 2012, Politico called the American Action Network “one of the key outside forces on the right.” That same year, AAN promised at least $10 million to 40 races in “orphan states,” or key races whose Republican candidates lacked strong state or local support apparatuses. 
• In 2015, AAN announced a $3 million campaign to support former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the House Freedom Caucus, which represents the furthest-right members of the House of Representatives.
• In 2017, the American Action Network gave $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.
• In 2017, the American Action Network spent a combined $2 million to promote Trump’s tax cuts ahead of the 2018 midterms. 
• In 2019, AAN spent $2 million to defend Donald Trump against his first impeachment. Later that year, it spent $2.5 million to attack Democrats who voted to impeach Donald Trump and represented districts he had won in 2016.
• American Action Network and the Congressional Leadership Fund reported raising a record-setting $295 million for the 2022 election cycle and planned to spend $190 million in support of Republican causes going into the midterm elections. According to the Las Vegas Sun, AAN spent at least $47.1 million through the end of October 2022 to influence the midterm elections in the 2022 cycle and sent $38.1 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Given its ties to House Republican leadership, CLF has at times been at odds with various outside groups aligned with other GOP factions. One of these fights came to a head in early 2023 during Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented bid for the House Speakership. On January 2, the Uihlein-backed nonprofit group the Club for Growth announced that it would oppose McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker of the House unless he agreed to a set of demands. The group specifically called on the new Congress to adopt rules that would empower right-wing members of the Republican caucus to have greater control over the legislative process. The group also demanded that the Congressional Leadership Fund abstain from spending money in open Republican primaries or against GOP incumbents, thus ensuring that the Club for Growth would have greater say in the composition of the Republican caucus. 

After McCarthy lost multiple votes for the Speakership, the CLF cut a deal with the Club for Growth on January 5, agreeing to the group’s demands. Both groups denied that McCarthy and his allies on Capitol Hill played a role in negotiating the terms of the agreement.

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s largest benefactor has been billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died in early 2021. Adelson was a longtime board member at the RJC. The Adelsons gave $2.5 million to the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund in 2020 and $500,000 in 2018.