Oops! We Did It Again: AIPAC Buys Back Congress
AIPAC was the top donor to a large swathe of the congressional leadership and that's the tip of its iceberg of influence - and Netanyahu's - in the incoming congress. An election post-mortem.
Congressman Don Davis (center) at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in 2023. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin is on his right. His career in the House is a testament to the words of Oscar Wilde in a very different yet somehow entirely similar context: “We know what you are. Now we are simply haggling over the price.” Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.
A story I published here on October 30 detailed the vast flow of last-minute money the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC, was strategically pumping into ten tightly contested congressional races as the clock was winding down towards the November 5 election. Now that the dust has mostly settled and it’s possible to take stock of the outcomes, I can report that AIPAC’s allies won at least seven of those races and has a good chance of winning two more, thereby adding still more to the influence arsenal of Israel’s most powerful Washington ally, which is joined at the hip with the country’s repellent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As I noted in the original story, AIPAC’s current vigorous efforts to ratchet up military support for Israel and whitewash every war crimes it commits with US weaponry, continues a rich heritage that dates back to the group’s founding in 1954 That year, a lobbyist for Israel set the group up to help the country, then just six-years-old, overcome a PR debacle that ensued after an army unit led by future Prime Minister Ariel Sharon massacred 69 Palestinian civilians, the large majority women and children, in the village of Qibya. Sharon ordered "maximal killing and damage to property” at Qibya so it would serve as “an example for everyone," he later wrote in his diary.
The top beneficiaries of AIPAC’s late-breaking 2024 largesse included Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada. The former, who ended up winning handily, has said Israel represents “barbarism against civilization” in its ongoing assault on Gaza and since Cruz is an absolute piece of shit but not a complete idiot, he’s probably vaguely aware of the irony in bestowing the status of “civilization” on Israeli as it methodically murders civilians, mostly women and children as were the dead in Qibya. That wouldn’t make any difference to Crus, though, because AIPAC is his No. 1 donor over the past six years with $258,886 in contributions – about two times what he got from runner up the Senate Conservatives Fund – and he picked up another $54,740 from the Republican Jewish Coalition in sixth place and $41,350 from NorPAC, another top level pro-Israel entity, which rounded out the top ten.
Rosen, who has traveled to Israel and met with Netanyahu and his War Cabinet, narrowly won reelection over Republican Sam Brown with a margin of about 1.6 percent of the votes.She may well have lost without the $877,641 she got from AIPAC – including $144,000 between October 1 to 16 – which dwarfed the $183,283 she received from her No. 2 contributor, EMILY's List.
The other eight AIPAC-impacted races I looked at in the first story were in the House. One of the group’s unstated but readily apparent priorities over the past several years has been electing moderate Black and Latino lawmakers as a counterweight to the left-leaning “Squad,” whose members have been among the most vocal critics in congress of Israel’s military assault on Gaza – hence, AIPAC’s ardor for New York City Congressman Ritchie ‘Bronx Bomber” Torres, whose Nos. 1 and 2 donors during the 2024 election were AIPAC with $541,998 and NorPAC far behind with $105,630.
AIPAC’s desire to counter the Squad was surely a major factor in its decision to pour $274,783 – nine times more than any other individual donor – into the campaign coffers of first-term African-American Congressman Don Davis, a Democrat from North Carolina and total doormat for Israel. Davis squeaked out victory in his reelection bid by 1.5 percent.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani. “Why yes, I would be ever so grateful for that $528,806 you mentioned, you are most kind and generous.” Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.
Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani, a Mexican-American lawmaker, who was facing a tough reelection fight against a former Democratic state legislator, received $90,360 from AIPAC, making the group his top individual donor as well, and by twice the amount he got from any of the weapons manufacturers, financial giants, and real estate companies that came in behind it. Ciscomani received $528,806 overall from pro-Israel groups, making it his No. 1 donor by sector (other than for the amorphous category of retirees and Leadership PACs, which contribute money from other lawmakers). His race still hasn’t been called, but Ciscomani is ahead, with 83 percent of the votes counted by about 2,000 votes, or 0.6 percent of the total.
Other endangered incumbents backed by AIPAC who I mentioned in the October 30 story were three House Republicans who narrowly won reelection with AIPAC being their top donor – Ken Calvert of California ($471,311), who’s ahead by a margin of about three percent with 70 percent of the votes counted;retired Air Force officer Don Bacon of Nebraska ($411,284), who won reelection by a margin of 2.4 percent of the votes, Michelle Steel of California ($51,422). David Schweikert of Arizona, a fourth House Republican who squeaked through their reelection race with major support from AIPAC, received $34,500 from the group, more than any other single donor except the Club for Growth, the far-right organization that’s closely affiliated with incoming President Donald Trump.
The October 30 story also noted significant last-minute cash infusions from AIPAC to two other Democrats in the House, Congressman Jared Golden of Maine and Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo of Colorado. Golden, who’s total take from AIPAC as of October 16 was $375,091, about 11 times more than he got from No. 2 Bloomberg LP, is ahead of his challenger by 727 votes with 98 percent of the ballots counted.
Caraveo, who is highly fawning towards Israel but not as utterly craven as AIPAC prefers, received $56,800 from AIPAC and another $73,960 from JStreetPAC – which is affiliated with the “liberal” entity J Street, which caved to Netanyahu virtually from the moment he began his extermination campaign in Gaza – putting them at Nos. 2 and 3 behind first place EMILY's List with $136,623, is the only of the candidates I cited in the original story who is confirmed to have lost, finishing less than one percentage point back from her GOP challenger Gabe Evans. The latter didn’t receive any money from AIPAC for his race, but he’s a dutiful toady for Israel too and took in almost $15,000 from pro-Israel groups. If he kisses Netanyahu’s ass sufficiently in his first term, and there’s little doubt Evans will, AIPAC will surely allocate sufficient resources to buy him outright come 2026.
This was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of AIPAC’s 2024 congressional sweepstakes winnings. Incredibly, the organizations was the No. 1 campaign contributor to the seven most powerful members of the House.
Congressman Mike Johnson, Netanyahu’s BFF in congress, may be the biggest right-wing freak to ever carry the title of Speaker of the House — and there’s plenty of competition. Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson received $575,330, from AIPAC, part of $833,487 he was handed from pro-Israel groups. Johnson’s No. 2 donor, Lockheed Martin, which is a leading weapons supplier to Israel, was far behind at $59,996.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise received $243,944, slightly less than his total haul from Nos. 2 through 4, in order, the National Association of Realtors, Valero Energy, and Cornerstone Government Affairs.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer netted $286,977, almost six times what he raked in from No. 2 Google.
Conference Chair Elise Stefanik Armed Services and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was funneled $209,344 from AIPAC, seven times as much as she received from No. 2 Apollo Global Management.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries landed $703,885, dwarfing the combined $300,000 or thereabouts from Nos 2 through 5: BlackRock, Apollo Global Management, Lockheed Martin, and MetLife.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark was handed $242,480 and another $31,000 from JStreetPAC, which was her third largest donor, just behind No. 2 Capital Group with $32,500.
Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar racked up $578,273, in winnings from AIPAC and $36,050 more from JStreetPAC, his No. 5 donor. Second place Wells Fargo ponied up $48,018 for Aguilar and third place General Atomics, a leading drone manufacturer whose customers include Israel, tossed in $42,600.
AIPAC was also the No. 1 donor to two Democratic House members who won reelection in closely fought races that attracted national interest. The first was Washington Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez ($123,723) – who was one of a group of Democrats, including Rosen and Golden, that David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote about in his newsletter to the paper’s subscribers this morning who were mysteriously reelected from states or congressional districts that Trump won, though he didn’t mention they triumphed with ample financial support from the Committee – who one of just over 20 Democrats to censure Michigan lawmaker Rashida Tlaib for her “antisemitic” remarks after Hamas’s attack on Israel, which included using the phrase “from the river to the sea” on social media.
The second was Henry Cuellar of Texas ($43,300), a moderate who’s comically corrupt, which is perfect from AIPAC’s perspective because knowing he takes illegal bribes is a strong indicator he’ll take its legal payoffs. He also received enormous funding via AIPAC in 2022 when he defeated Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration lawyer, by 289 votes.
In 2022, AIPAC knocked out Congresswoman Nina Turner, the co-chair of Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign two years earlier, by allying with the Pro-Israel America PAC, NorPAC, Elliott Management, the hedge fun run by pro-Israel zealot Paul Singer, and – I’m not making this up – a group that goes by the name of Democracy Engine – to lard challenger Shon tel Brown with about $1 million. AIPAC put so much money behind Brown – and the FEC records reveal it is doing the same again currently – that a pro-Turner group called Justice Democrats ultimately declined to back her campaign financially after concluding it would be impossible for her to raise enough money to win.
Meanwhile, the United Democracy Project, a Super PAC controlled by AIPAC, spent $37 million during the current election cycle. It spent more than $15 million of that in successfully targeting two Squad members in their primary races – Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York and Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri – and used another $5 million to purchase the eternal souls and seats in next year’s congress for George Latimer and Wesley Bell, the two Democrats it handpicked and financed to run against them, respectively.
Having publicly flexed its muscles by buying Brown her House seat in 2022, AIPAC only had to spend $108,000 this year to be the No. 1 donor to her reelection bid. Brown cruised to victory with 78 percent of the vote.
All of this is laying in plain sight in the online records of the Federal Election Commission and at Open Secrets, the essential nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. Why won’t the mainstream media report on how AIPAC makes democracy in the US an even bigger joke than it already is?
Never mind, that was purely a rhetorical question that we all know the answer to. Talk about a joke.