Cori Bush Loses Reelection Bid to Democrat Backed by $8.5 Million From AIPAC

 By Jake Johnson

"Tonight's results should be a warning sign to anyone who cares about our democracy," said one advocacy group.

Rep. Cori Bush lost her reelection bid in Missouri's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday to a Democratic primary candidate backed by a massive influx of spending from AIPAC, which targeted the progressive incumbent over her early calls for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, enjoyed a huge cash advantage over Bush, with nearly two-thirds of his campaign money coming from fundraising efforts by AIPAC's super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP).

UDP, which has been bankrolled by ultra-wealthy Republicans, spent around $8.5 million to oust Bush, the second Squad member to lose to an AIPAC-backed primary opponent this election cycle. AIPAC pledged earlier this year to spend $100 million attacking progressive candidates, and the organization has thus far been the largest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year.

The Intercept's Akela Lacy reported that in Tuesday's race, AIPAC's money was spent "on voter engagement efforts and phone banking in addition to digital and mail ads."

"One of the mailers, first reported by The Intercept, included images that distorted Bush's features," Lacy added.

Bell, who also raised money directly from Republican billionaires and previously served as campaign manager for a GOP candidate, narrowly defeated Bush, winning 51.2% of the vote compared to the incumbent's 45.6%—a margin of fewer than 7,000 votes.

In a fiery speech to supporters following her defeat, Bush said that by "pulling me away from my position as congresswoman, all you did was take some of the strings off."

Bush, who was elected to the House in 2020, went on to directly address AIPAC's role in what became one of the most expensive congressional primaries in U.S. history.

"AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down," said Bush. "And let me put all of these corporations on notice: I'm coming after you too. But I'm not coming by myself. I'm coming with all the people that's in here, that's doing the work."

Justice Democrats, a progressive organization that helped propel Bush to victory in 2020 and backed her reelection bid, said following Tuesday's contest that "no matter what a singular super PAC can spend to try and buy an election, nothing can take away from the transformational effect Cori Bush has directly had on the people of St. Louis."

"That power—of everyday people to transform what we can expect from our political system—is such a threat to right-wing power, corporate interests, and AIPAC's influence, that a coalition of GOP-funded Super PACs had to spend over $12 million to even have a chance at defeating it," the group said in a statement posted to social media. "As AIPAC's influence in Congress wanes and the right-wing network propping it up is exposed, AIPAC has to spend historic amounts to continue advancing their interests at the expense of the Democratic mainstream that overwhelmingly supports a ceasefire and an end to genocide in Gaza."

Bush was one of the original sponsors of a congressional resolution calling for an end to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, which has dragged on for 10 months and left nearly 40,000 Palestinians dead, according to official tallies that are likely a vast undercount given the number of people missing under ruins and in mass graves.

"We can't bomb our way to peace, equality, and freedom," Bush said as she introduced the resolution alongside her progressive House colleagues on October 16. "With thousands of lives lost and millions more at stake, we need a cease-fire now."

"Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents' taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza."

Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said Tuesday that "without the deluge of misleading advertisements" attacking Bush, she "would be headed to Congress for another term next year."

"Tonight's results should be a warning sign to anyone who cares about our democracy," said Shiney-Ajay. "If Democratic Party leaders don't stand against AIPAC and right-wing billionaires, they undermine our democracy and risk disillusioning the young voters and voters of color we need to defeat the far-right."

Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese echoed that message, saying in a statement that "tonight's outcome puts the blatantly undemocratic nature of Democratic Party primaries on full display."

"Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents' taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, AIPAC and its MAGA Republican-funded super PAC spent more than $8.4 million to buy her congressional seat," said Geevarghese.

"Democratic Party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy," he added, "yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president."

This article originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 25th, 2024

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Pro-Israel PACs poised to spend big to unseat progressive members of Congress in 2024 election cycle

By Mat Schumer

A November house vote to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) was the latest effort to counter members of the progressive “squad” by politicians backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The squad, a group of eight lawmakers, mainly women, has been critical of Israeli policy and is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Already one of the most influential political organizations in Washington, AIPAC created a political action committee in 2021, enabling the organization to contribute directly to political campaigns. 

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who introduced the resolution to censure Tlaib for allegedly using anti-semitic rhetoric when speaking out against U.S. aid to Israel, received $10,000 from AIPAC in the 2022 election cycle.

AIPAC also donated to the campaigns of all but one of the twelve Republican cosponsors of the censure.

Pro-Israel lobby presses for US military support in war with Hamas

By Mat Schumer

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of the most influential pro-Israel lobbying groups in Washington, is urging U.S. lawmakers to bolster security assistance to Israel in the wake of Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Hamas militants killed 1,400 Israeli civilians and took 240 hostages during a surprise raid in southern Israel last month. More than 14,000 Palestinians, including an estimated 6,000 children, have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, according to data compiled by the United Nations.

President Joe Biden made it clear at the time that his administration stands with Israel, urging Congress to “take urgent action to fund the national security requirements of our critical partners.”

Three weeks later, House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Tex.) introduced the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which would provide $14.3 billion in emergency funding for military assistance to Israel.

The bill passed the House, but Senate Democrats objected to a version of the bill that cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service, appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Some Senate Democrats want to pass aid to Israel as part of the White House’s supplemental security request, which includes assistance to both Israel and Ukraine.

A November 2023 Marist poll published in collaboration with NPR and PBS NewsHour found that “more than six in ten Americans think Congress should authorize additional funding to support the wars in Ukraine and Israel,” while 14% said they supported passing military assistance for only Israel, and 12% believed the U.S. should only provide aid to Ukraine.

“We strongly support and urge quick adoption of legislation to fully fund President Biden’s proposed security assistance to Israel,” an AIPAC spokesperson told OpenSecrets. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether the organization supports passing an Israeli aid package without assistance to Ukraine.

Granger’s campaign committee received over $71,000 from AIPAC and its affiliates in 2023. Many other lawmakers advancing recent bills and resolutions in support of Israel received political contributions from AIPAC within the past year and during the 2022 election cycle, many of which were made in the form of earmarked individual donations to the committee.

In addition to pouring money into political contributions and advertising, AIPAC spent over $2.2 million on in-house federal lobbying efforts in the first three quarters of 2023 — about $260,000 more than the amount they spent by quarter three of 2022.

AIPAC’s most recent lobbying disclosure outlined its lobbying on issues including defense, budgeting and foreign affairs. AIPAC lobbied many bills, including several aimed to sanction Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, as well as more generalized funding bills like the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024.

Oren Adaki, an assistant director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, was Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) legislative director before leaving that position for AIPAC in Feb. 2021. Wilson chairs the House Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. AIPAC contributed over $40,000 to Wilson’s campaign committee in 2023.

Another AIPAC’s assistant director of policy and government affairs, Zachary Moses, worked as a senior legislative assistant to Rep. David P. Joyce (R-Ohio). Joyce serves as a member of the House Subcommittees of Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations, and received a small contribution of nearly $8,000 from AIPAC affiliates in 2022.

In their press releases lauding the passage of the NDAA in the house, Joyce and Wilson both highlighted the $50 million increase of the initial $75 million funding request for joint research and development between the U.S. and Israel. The House version of the NDAA for 2024 also includes an allocation of $300 million for the U.S.-Israeli cooperative missile program.

In 2021, AIPAC established itself as the leading source of federal political contributions supporting pro-Israel candidates and causes with the creation of an associated political action committee.

A total of $13 million in political contributions were made to members of the 118th Congress through AIPAC PAC during the 2022 election cycle, as well as over $8 million in 2023 so far.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was recently indicted on charges of illegally acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, was the top recipient of AIPAC contributions in 2023, receiving over $1 million from the organization in the first three quarters of the year.

AIPAC also gave nearly $80,000 this year to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who joined a bipartisan Senate delegation to Israel a couple of weeks after the Hamas attacks.

A few days before the trip, Rosen signed a letter from a group of senators urging the Biden administration to provide Israel Iron Dome missiles intended to intercept projectiles from Gaza. Two weeks later, Pentagon Press Secretary, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, confirmed that the United States would be sending two Iron Dome systems to Israel.

Other signees include Sens. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) — all of whom (besides Baldwin) received contributions from AIPAC since 2021.

A separate resolution declaring America’s solidarity with Israel was the first legislation passed under House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, (R-La.) whose biggest contributor during his 2022 midterm elections was AIPAC. 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) introduced the resolution to reaffirm what he called “America’s unwavering support for the state of Israel.” McCaul received nearly $120,000 in political contributions from AIPAC this year.

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets.org on November 30th, 2023.  

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