After decades of bipartisan deference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the likely contenders for the next Democratic presidential nomination have been distancing themselves from the powerful organization. The shift is significant. But disavowing AIPAC has become a box-checking exercise, useful for politicians who remain firm supporters of Israel.

Polling last month found that registered Democrats—by a margin of 67-17 percent—were more sympathetic toward Palestinians than Israelis. For elected officials on automatic pilot for Israel, such numbers are a big jolt. In response, the evident quest is to satisfy the majority of Democratic voters who have negative views of Israel, while at the same time not angering its supporters.

While AIPAC and perhaps other pro-Israel groups must now cope with being shunned by many Democratic politicians, the implications for US policy toward Israel are another matter. The Times of Israel reports that “none of the potential 2028 Democratic Party candidates has embraced AIPAC,” but the ultimate goal of such organizations is to prevent federal officeholders from impeding the massive pipeline of American weapons to Israel or fracturing the US-Israel military alliance.

“It’s not just avoiding AIPAC money,” Congressman Ro Khanna told me. “It’s the guts to take them on with clear policy.” Khanna has stressed that “what matters more is the clarity of calling what happened a genocide and stopping military sales to Israel used to kill civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.”

As vocal opponents of US arms shipments to Israel, Khanna and Senator Chris Van Hollen are unusual in the field of expected Democratic presidential candidates. That’s why the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, singled them out for denunciation last month at the ADL’s national conference, complete with the timeworn technique of insinuating antisemitism.

In sharp contrast to confronting the immorality of arming Israel’s genocidal policies, simply promising not to take AIPAC money is easy. As if to show how valueless such a pledge can be, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear stuck like glue to standard pro-Israel talking points during a national interview this spring. Along the way, he refused to call what Israel has done in Gaza “genocide,” complaining “that’s becoming one of those new litmus tests that we said we would never do as a party again.”

(Khanna replied with a pointed tweet saying: “Yes, standing up for human rights is the most basic litmus test. Our party needs a new moral direction.”)

The governor getting the most attention for 2028, California’s Gavin Newsom, has offered assurances that he will never take AIPAC money. In an early March interview, he seemed to compare Israel to an “apartheid state”—but later emphatically backtracked, expressing regret over using the word “apartheid” and declaring: “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel.” That expression of reverence came more than three weeks after Israel had initiated its current wars on Iran and Lebanon.

Another governor eyeing the Oval Office who has vowed not to take AIPAC funding is Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. He became controversial during the intense carnage of the Israeli war on Gaza when he called for a crackdown on peaceful campus protests.

Others with long pro-Israel records who are often named as potential 2028 candidates have maintained tactful silences when asked about whether they’d accept support from AIPAC, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Mark Kelly and Raphael Warnock, Governors Wes Moore of Maryland and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

This spring began with a round of high-profile interviews with Senator Cory Booker as apparent groundwork for a presidential campaign. Booker was still receiving donations bundled by AIPAC at the end of 2025, but he cut off funding from the group this year. “I don’t believe we should be accepting any PAC money at all from anybody,” Booker said. He has a long history of courting AIPAC.

Now New Jersey’s senior senator, Booker “frequently ingratiated himself at the AIPAC conferences by professing his unquestioned loyalty to Israel,” the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs noted three years ago. “For example, on March 2, 2020, Booker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reassured the AIPAC throng of the ‘unshakeable bond’ between the United States and........

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