The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of the most influential forces in U.S. politics, will no longer directly endorse candidates or donate to them from its federal political action committee, the group said Wednesday.
But the pro-Israel lobby is not relinquishing its political power. AIPAC and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, still plan to financially support pro-Israel candidates.
The super PAC, which has spent more than $50 million in independent expenditures for the midterms, is still involved in key races — most recently the Michigan Senate race, where it gave around $9 million over the past week to a group supporting Republican Mike Rogers, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign activities before public disclosure. AIPAC gave the money, first reported by the New York Times, after the Federal Election Commission’s Oct. 14 deadline to disclose campaign contributions, the last before the general election.
The lobby’s executives announced the changes to its endorsement and donation strategy in a letter to members this week, saying they had reached the decision after conducting a review “to consider how AIPAC can become even more effective.”
AIPAC’s involvement in campaigns has turned some races into a forum for a debate over Israel, especially in Democratic primaries where voters and candidates have been deeply divided on the issue.
“We believe this approach positions us to capitalize on new innovations and deliver even greater political impact to influence policy,” the letter said.
Nowhere has AIPAC’s contentious brand been more evident than Michigan this year.
The group’s super PAC spent more than $30 million on the Democratic Senate primary to boost Rep. Haley Stevens, a staunch Israel supporter. Her loss to Abdul El-Sayed, a fierce critic of Israel who has called its war in Gaza a genocide, was one of AIPAC’s most bruising defeats this cycle.
AIPAC has also spent millions in House Democratic primaries to support pro-Israel candidates or defeat critics of the country.
Critics of AIPAC cast its new changes as ineffectual.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, said AIPAC’s changes will do nothing to “save its brand.” He added that keeping the United Democracy Project operational allows the group to continue its outsize influence.
“Keeping its Super PAC while abandoning its own PAC only doubles down on the dark money politics that helped create its problem in the first place,” Ben-Ami said in a statement Wednesday.
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