Progressive groups unite to counter pro-Israel Democratic primary candidates
Jewish, Arab and Muslim organizations form Reject AIPAC to counter pro-Israel groups’ strategy of funding incumbent anti-Zionists’ challengers
Facing a barrage of super PAC money, more than 20 progressive groups are coming together to forcefully counter pro-Israel groups’ efforts to mount a primary challenge to liberal members who have been critics of Israel’s blistering military offensive in Gaza.
The coalition, called Reject AIPAC, includes Jewish anti-Zionist organizations and Arab American and Muslim groups that have been organizing in record numbers since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
Their efforts are a direct response to pro-Israel political action committees like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC, that are pledging or planning to spend tens of millions of dollars to try to defeat Democratic members of the so-called “squad” in primaries and the general election this year. Th AIPAC campaign has turned the otherwise safely Democratic districts into election battlegrounds.
“These are a handful of Black and brown progressive incumbents who are under attack from a threat of $100 million in spending and usually Democratic leadership and establishment is up in arms anytime someone primaries an incumbent,” said Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, one of the groups leading the coalition. “But the energy is a little lighter when it comes to some of these progressives and so we are coming together to ensure that they have the resources to defend themselves against AIPAC.”
The strategy, according to Andrabi, is to link up the grassroots organizations behind a seven-figure “electoral defense campaign” that aims to not only protect members of Congress being targeted by AIPAC but also to bring light to what they see as the group’s divergence from the longstanding values of the Democratic Party.
AIPAC has defended its track record, telling The Associated Press last month that “it is entirely consistent with progressive values to stand with the Jewish state” and that the group has a history of supporting members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Nonetheless, the coalition’s lobbying effort will focus on promoting pro-Palestinian members and candidates as well as highlighting national polling that shows that the majority of Democratic voters are aligned with their stances, including increasing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and conditioning US aid to Israel as the number of casualties rises above 30,000 Palestinians in the five months of war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip.
Those figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 terror operatives in Gaza since the war started, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has also driven most Palestinians from their homes and pushed one-quarter of the population toward starvation.
The war erupted when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel by air, land and sea, killing close to 1,200 people and kidnapping another 253 to Gaza, where more than 100 are still held hostage.
In Congress, the war has driven a familiar wedge between Democrats, with even some lawmakers aligned with AIPAC declining to discuss the dynamics on the record.
Part of the strategy of the new coalition is to force those fissures into the open by requiring any candidate or member aligned with them to sign a pledge, outright rejecting any campaign money from groups like AIPAC, which has historically yielded immense clout in Washington.
This comes as AIPAC shifted in its own strategy in the last several years, transitioning from strictly a lobbying organization to helping elect centrist, pro-Israel Democrats. In 2022, it began challenging Democratic incumbents in primaries.
Before November, the group and PACs connected to its ethos have once again begun contributing to candidates running against members of the squad. The Democrats facing challengers include Jamaal Bowman of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Cori Bush of Missouri, all of whom have not only called for a ceasefire but have demanded an end to US aid to Israel.
In 2022, AIPAC spent around $27 million targeting progressive candidates. Its war chest this cycle is expected to be more than twice that amount.
“We will never be at parity and that’s the reality of this,” Andrabi said. “This has always been a David vs. Goliath conflict and it will continue to be but the most we can do is organize now in a concerted way and take them on head-on in a way that folks haven’t in past cycles.”
