A six-month-old super PAC is finally giving AIPAC a fight in House Democratic primaries — and winning, spending at least $5.6 million to help democratic socialists knock off incumbents who toe the line on Israel.
For years, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has operated as the undisputed kingmaker in both parties' foreign policy, dropping $34 million this cycle alone through its United Democracy Project super PAC to crush critics of Israeli policy. Two cycles ago, that machine took out Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Now a countervailing force exists — and it's coming from the democratic socialist left, not the establishment right that claims to carry the America-first banner.
American Priorities, which raised $5.5 million as of June 3 per Federal Election Commission filings, helped fuel three wins in recent weeks: Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York primaries, and Melat Kiros, who defeated 30-year incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado's Denver-based district on Tuesday. Kiros, a 29-year-old former attorney who immigrated from Ethiopia as a child, led DeGette 49.3% to 43.5% with 84% of votes counted, according to the Associated Press. The district heavily favors Democrats, so Kiros is nearly certain to join Congress in January.
A spokesperson for American Priorities, Greg Krieg, said the group was built because there was "nothing close to a countervailing force" to AIPAC in primaries. "The idea was to back people who speak plainly about what most Democratic voters — and indeed most Americans — already believe, so that telling the truth stops being the thing that gets you outspent three to one," Krieg said in a statement.
AIPAC's super PAC isn't backing down. Spokesman Patrick Dorton deflected when asked about American Priorities' impact, telling CNN the group makes "our own independent decisions" — then pivoted to demand scrutiny of "anti-Israel dark money." The same scrutiny standard, applied evenly, would be welcome. AIPAC's United Democracy Project outspends American Priorities roughly six to one.
The wins underscore a bipartisan failure: the establishment right, which claims to put America first, has built nothing to challenge AIPAC's stranglehold on foreign policy. That work is being done by democratic socialists who don't flinch from naming the lobby. DSA-backed candidates have now won more than 30 races this cycle, according to the group's tracker.
Bush, mounting a comeback bid in an August primary, captured the tension plainly: "I truly believe that we need to get the big money out of politics," she told CNN. "But right now, having a counterweight to AIPAC and the big cryptocurrency folks and big real estate, big pharma, the war profiteers — will be useful to us because often one of the issues we have is we are grassroots."
The open question: now that someone is finally punching back, does the establishment right join the fight — or keep taking AIPAC's checks?
