A Republican Senate nominee has quietly urged one of the nation’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying groups to stay out of his race.
Michigan’s GOP nominee for the Senate, Mike Rogers, reportedly met with AIPAC’s chair in Los Angeles last week, and a day later, the organization pulled an ad it had already produced attacking his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, according to reporting by Axios.
Axios reported that Rogers’ campaign asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf. The request has fractured his relationship with AIPAC and laid bare how radioactive the group has become even among the Republicans it wants to help, according to Axios.
AIPAC had poured more than $30 million into trying to sink El-Sayed during the Democratic primary. It was prepared to spend millions more heading into the November 3 general election, Axios reported.
The offensive appears to have backfired, Axios noted. El-Sayed, a sharp critic of Israel who has described it as a “rogue state,” turned the group’s spending into a rallying cry and used it to cast rivals as captive to outside money, according to Axios.
“Come back and burn it again,” he taunted AIPAC before winning the August 4 primary.
Rogers’ team concluded the attacks had simply handed El-Sayed a useful villain. Rather than more branded ads, his allies floated a quieter alternative, per Axios. They suggested steering AIPAC’s donors toward a friendly super PAC or bringing the group’s strategists on board without its name attached. AIPAC balked at the idea and insisted on a visible role, according to Axios.
Talks between Rogers’ campaign and AIPAC have since frozen, with other Republicans scrambling to patch things up, Axios reported.
The friction reflects AIPAC’s broader slide. The group has absorbed a run of primary losses, and in a state with a large Arab American electorate like Michigan, its embrace carries real risk, Axios noted. A recent Fox News poll found most Michigan voters now oppose further U.S. aid to Israel.
Rogers insisted he welcomes “any and all support” from pro-Israel backers, according to Axios.
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