{"id":20175,"date":"2026-03-18T05:46:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/aipac-faces-calls-to-reassess-strategy-after-split-results-in-illinois\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:46:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:46:45","slug":"aipac-faces-calls-to-reassess-strategy-after-split-results-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/aipac-faces-calls-to-reassess-strategy-after-split-results-in-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"AIPAC faces calls to reassess strategy after split results in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee saw mixed results in the first major test of its political muscle in the midterms, drawing fresh recriminations from its foes \u2014 and some allies \u2014 for its interference in four competitive Illinois House primaries.<\/p>\n

Two of AIPAC\u2019s supported candidates won their races Tuesday night, with Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller denying former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. a comeback<\/a> in the 2nd District and former Rep. Melissa Bean defeating a slew of progressive challengers<\/a> in the 8th District.<\/p>\n

But the group faced criticism from within the pro-Israel Democratic community and harsh words from its opponents after it failed to secure its preferred outcome in the two races where it spent the most money.<\/p>\n

In the 9th District, the group spent $7 million, some of it aimed at attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, whose mother is Israeli, making an enemy of a likely soon-to-be U.S. representative who has been critical of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza but who had previously been willing to engage<\/a> with the group. Biss won the crowded primary<\/a> Tuesday night, after AIPAC pivoted from attacking him to instead concentrate its negative ads on progressive social media influencer and Palestinian American Kat Abughazaleh. And in the 7th District, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC spent nearly $5 million backing Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who lost to state Rep. La Shawn Ford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The split scorecard comes a month after AIPAC angered its own centrist allies by going after\u00a0 another fairly pro-Israel candidate<\/a>, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) \u2014 a move that ended up handing the primary to a stronger critic of Israel, progressive Analilia Mejia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was once again a vast amount of money spent and wasted trying to dust up a candidate who, by almost anybody\u2019s reasonable analysis, Israel should be happy to have in Congress supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,\u201d one longtime AIPAC member, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said of the group\u2019s spending against Biss.<\/p>\n

AIPAC, the person added, \u201cshould take a look at the results in [the 9th District] and New Jersey and reconsider their strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

AIPAC-aligned super PACs spent nearly$22 million<\/a> in the Illinois primaries, more than one-fifth the total $100 million warchest it has in hand so far for the 2026 midterms, to win two of four open-seat races while losing the one that drove the most national attention.<\/p>\n

At his victory party Tuesday night, Biss slammed the group for spending heavily \u201cto buy this seat to support the idea that we can\u2019t accept nuance\u201d on the U.S.-Israel relationship.<\/p>\n

“AIPAC found out the hard way \u2014 the 9th District is not for sale,\u201d Biss told supporters.<\/p>\n

AIPAC pushed back against the notion that the group struggled in Tuesday night\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIllinois voters rejected half a dozen anti-Israel candidates across several heavily Democratic open-seat races,\u201d Deryn Sousa, an AIPAC spokesperson, said in a statement Tuesday night. \u201cThese results further demonstrate that campaigns defined largely by opposition to AIPAC, our members, and the values we represent continue to fall short on election night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversial organization, already a foil for Democrats grappling with growing anti-Israel sentiment in their party, is facing fresh animosity and renewed scrutiny over its campaign spending as the U.S. and Israel wage a joint war on Iran that\u2019s further soured Americans on their longtime ally.<\/p>\n

Recent polling shows Americans \u2014 and Democrats, in particular \u2014 shifting further away from Israel. A NBC News poll<\/a> released this week showed 57 percent of Democrats view Israel negatively, a dramatic shift from when just 35 percent held a negative view of the country after Hamas attacked it on Oct. 7, 2023. A Quinnipiac University survey<\/a> showed 44 percent of voters think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel \u2014 the highest percentage since the pollsters started asking the question in 2017. Among Democrats, 62 percent think America is too supportive of Israel, compared with just 22 percent who think the support is about right and 8 percent who think it\u2019s not supportive enough.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear the organization is aware of its standing in Democratic primaries \u2014 its ads focused on everything but Israel, accusing candidates of not being progressive enough on other issues. But AIPAC\u2019s involvement became a major talking point for those it was attacking, especially in the 9th District.<\/p>\n

The Illinois Democratic delegation likely won\u2019t have a significant ideological shift on Israel from the races\u2019 results. Bean will replace Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, another pro-Israel candidate, who lost his Senate primary contest to Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. Biss\u2019s views on Israel aren\u2019t far from those of outgoing Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who endorsed him and has sharply criticized AIPAC in the past. Rep. Danny Davis has supported Israel but denounced its Gaza intervention; Ford doesn\u2019t appear to have said much publicly on the issue.<\/p>\n

The biggest potential change is Miller replacing Rep. Robin Kelly, who has called the war in Gaza a \u201cgenocide.\u201d<\/a> She also didn\u2019t advance through the Illinois Senate primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider this a pro-Israel win. We are better off in the Chicago delegation than we were yesterday,\u201d said Patrick Dorton, the spokesperson for the AIPAC super PAC United Democracy Project, pointing to the new incumbents in the Kelly, Schakowsky and Davis seats.<\/p>\n

Dorton also argued that if the group\u2019s pop-up super PAC \u201cdidn\u2019t go negative with more than a million dollars in spending to defeat Abughazaleh, she may well have beat Biss.\u201d<\/p>\n

And AIPAC allies took a more generous read on their group\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou win some, you lose some,\u201d said AIPAC ally Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), who backed Fine, Miller and Bean in their races. Schneider added that if a group wins every race they\u2019re involved in, \u201cyou probably haven’t pushed the boundaries as far as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Romick, president of the Democratic Majority for Israel, which often overlaps in its preferred candidates with AIPAC, said Tuesday\u2019s results showed that \u201cIsrael wasn’t a determinative factor in these primaries\u201d and \u201cnone of the extremist anti-Israel candidates won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents of AIPAC crowed that voters had spurned the groups\u2019 hardline tactics, including AIPAC\u2019s use of shell PACs to obscure the source of the outside spending. And they held up Biss\u2019 victory in particular as reassurance for candidates wary AIPAC will wade into their primaries that the group can be defeated. Democratic candidates and strategists are bracing for the group to intervene in a range of upcoming House primaries, as well as the Michigan and Minnesota Senate primaries.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s results \u201cshould send a clear message to candidates across the country: you do not have to fear AIPAC\u2019s spending or intimidation,\u201d Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a rival organization that spent $350,000 backing Biss and worked to counter AIPAC in other Illinois House races, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Yet AIPAC is poised to remain formidable through the midterms. One pro-Israel Democratic donor adviser, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said even with AIPAC\u2019s misfires, the money is likely to keep pouring in.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir donor talking points aren\u2019t going to be, \u2018we only got half.\u2019 They’ll say, \u2018we took out two of the worst people,\u2019\u201d said the donor adviser of Tuesday\u2019s results. \u201cThey know how to sell it, and there’s no shortage of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee saw mixed results in the first major test of its political muscle in the midterms, drawing fresh recriminations from its foes \u2014 and some allies \u2014 for its interference in four competitive Illinois House primaries. Two of AIPAC\u2019s supported candidates won their races Tuesday night, with Cook County Commissioner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}