Democrats grow wary of AIPAC’s role in elections

A growing number of Democrats who were once supportive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are condemning the political powerhouse as the pro-Israel group and its affiliates have turned increasingly divisive in elections.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), once a donor to AIPAC who is Jewish, condemned the group after Tuesday’s primary elections, saying it “really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who’s enjoyed support from Jewish groups, including AIPAC, also said last week he would reject spending from the pro-Israel group moving forward.

The rebukes reflect some Democrats’ increased frustrations as AIPAC-aligned groups have waded into competitive elections and as popular opinion on the political powerhouse and Israel, writ large, has rapidly declined. 

“I have no doubt that if I would run for reelection, they’d oppose me,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told The Hill. “I don’t know what’s happened to that organization.”

Outside spending flooded a handful of Illinois congressional races for the March 17 primary, with several industry and lobbying interests pouring in money to tip the scales of safely Democratic House seats. Three groups, two of which were bolstered by contributions from a super PAC linked to AIPAC, spent heavily to boost four candidates in the Prairie State, with two of their four preferred candidates winning their primaries.

The third group, reportedly tied to the pro-Israel group, has not yet filed its campaign finance filing.

But allies of these groups posit that the real mark of success on primary night was to make sure that no “squad” members won their elections in Illinois. They say, too, that they want the most pro-Israel candidates in Congress.

“I would say by any measure, we have a more pro-Israel Chicago delegation today than we did before the primary,” said Patrick Dorton, spokesperson for AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project. 

Yet the groups’ involvement in the congressional race has frustrated some Democrats.

“It became an organization that was supporting Donald Trump and people who follow Donald Trump,” Pritzker, largely seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender, told The Associated Press in an interview. “AIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.” 

During a press conference about the Illinois film industry on Thursday, Pritzker — who gave $5 million to a super PAC backing Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in the Illinois Senate Democratic primary — suggested the country needed to get “special interest money out of politics.” He was careful not to say whether people should take money from AIPAC or not. 

Other Democrats asked last week about potentially receiving AIPAC support said they were not interested. 

“I have a long, fraught and publicly known antagonistic relationship with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu for his hostility and attempts to undermine that goal,” Rahm Emanuel, a potential 2028 candidate who is also Jewish, told Politico’s Illinois Playbook last week in a statement, referring to his work toward a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians.

“Based on my work on behalf of peace, I need not worry about AIPAC’s support. It will not be forthcoming,” he said. 

Another potential White House candidate, Gallego was asked on an episode of Politico’s “The Conversation with Dasha Burns” published last week whether Democrats should be taking AIPAC money in the current political moment.

“I think, right now, especially the context of how — what Israel is doing, I wouldn’t take AIPAC money, because you have to basically be endorsing what’s happening right now,” the Arizona senator said, as the U.S. and Israel wage war against Iran. 

An AIPAC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill. But responding to a reporter from The Hill who posted Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) comments on whether he would reject money from the group, the organization said on the social media platform X, “The orchestrated campaign to single out and demonize pro-Israel Americans, including millions of Democrats who are members of AIPAC, for participating in the political process is wrong and fundamentally undemocratic.” 

The history between Israel and Palestine has roiled the U.S. for decades, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel. That assault, the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and the humanitarian crisis playing out in Gaza have divided Americans, including Jewish Americans.

A recent NBC News poll found 32 percent of respondents viewed Israel positively, while 39 percent viewed the country negatively. A separate 27 percent said they are neutral. A similar survey done in November 2023 showed 47 percent of respondents viewing Israel positively, 24 percent negatively and 27 percent said they were neutral. 

Respondents’ views of Palestine were even worse: Only 22 percent of respondents had a positive view of the territory, while 30 percent had a negative view and 41 percent were neutral. Compared to NBC News’s 2023 survey, when 20 percent of respondents had a positive view of Palestine, 38 percent had a negative view and 37 percent were neutral. 

“It’s our mission as an organization to support the U.S.-Israel relationship, no matter which government is in power in Israel or which government is in power in the United States,” AIPAC’s Dorton told The Hill. 

“We are a bipartisan organization in a polarized partisan political landscape. It’s always going to be hard,” Dorton added when asked whether it felt harder to work with Democrats more recently.

Yet others argue that AIPAC is simply not aligned with where the party is today and bristle at its aligned groups’ campaign tactics. 

“You put together the substance of this policy drift of Israel to the right, and the tactics that AIPAC began to adopt, and the intensity of the attacks and the size of the spending that they were willing to engage in,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the progressive J Street group. 

“And it’s really no shock that, you know, the last year, you’ve just seen the roof cave in on them.” 

Even as public opinion has shifted, Democrats are finding it harder to thread the needle. Some Democratic senators largely decried the idea of money in politics and outside spending, while carefully avoiding offering their opinion on AIPAC or whether they’d want its support. 

“I have individuals who support me,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) told reporters when asked whether he would reject AIPAC support. 

Booker, seen as a possible 2028 candidate, took issue with the idea of singling out AIPAC in the first place, when asked about the shift in opinion about the organization among Democrats and whether he would reject money from the group. 

“First and foremost, there is a singling out of AIPAC that is troubling to me,” Booker said, who said he didn’t think candidates should be accepting PAC money overall.

But other Democrats have fewer qualms about distancing themselves from the organization. 

“I’ve known it for decades, and they’ve taken a sharp right turn toward Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, instead of considering Israel’s future and the future of Jewish Americans as a priority,” Durbin said. 

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