Jewish Democrats launch ads blasting Young Republicans for praising Hitler

(JTA) — The Jewish Democratic Council of America is launching an attack ad on social media in battleground districts, slamming Young Republicans for praising Hitler and using antisemitic tropes in group chats.

The new ad, which is running on Meta platforms, warns of “thousands of messages shared in a group chat,” in which “members muse about using gas chambers against political opponents.” Readouts play over images of text messages such as “I love Hitler,” uncovered in a Politico investigation last year of exchanges between leaders of Young Republican groups across the country on the Telegram app.

The ad also includes footage of Vice President JD Vance responding to the revelations by saying that “we’re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat.”

A PBS News anchor then warns that “this is the speech of Republicans today who are going to be the leaders of the party tomorrow.”

“They’re voting. Are you?” the ad concludes.

The JDCA ad blitz comes as each party is trying to paint the other as extreme – with Democrats accusing Republicans of associations with far-right racists and Republicans linking Democrats to anti-Israel candidates and officials, including Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Haile Soifer, CEO of the JDCA, said in a statement that the ad aims to remind “younger Jewish voters across the country of the GOP’s dangerous extremism ahead of the midterms.”

“If young Republican leaders feel emboldened to praise Hitler in group chats, we shouldn’t be surprised Republicans under Trump echo, espouse, and amplify extreme rhetoric and antisemitic tropes,” Soifer added.

The ads, which the JDCA says cost close to $300,000, are targeting Jewish voters in six key states – Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Iowa – and in every House district that the Cook Political Report deems a “toss-up,” a JDCA spokesperson said.

The JDCA has not endorsed El-Sayed.

The ads are aimed at “reaching younger Jewish voters,” a JDCA spokesperson said.

The text messages in the ads have been circulating since last October, when Politico unearthed a slew of chats from a Telegram channel.

The Kansas Young Republican club and New York’s statewide Young Republicans organization were disbanded shortly after the exposé’s publication, but a New York City counterpart, the New York Young Republicans Club, remained operational. The club hosted a gala in December that welcomed white nationalists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists.

Other cohorts that have since come under fire for similar such chats, including the University of Florida’s College Republicans chapter and the Florida International University College Republicans club.

Meanwhile, a Young Republican whose “I love Hitler” text was featured in the exposé is now defending his actions. Denying that he is antisemitic, he wrote that he’s “a guy with a dark sense of humor who sometimes finds himself funnier than he actually is.”

He accused fellow Republicans of becoming “the party of pearl-clutching,” using a term describing theatrical reactions to a situation that isn’t truly scandalous.

The vice president also denounced the phenomenon of pearl clutching, as noted in the soundbites of the JDCA ad. Vance, instead, described the text messages as “edgy, offensive jokes.”

The Young Republicans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

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