In recent months, AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel have celebrated victories of their endorsees in Democratic primaries in more than 100 congressional districts, most notably St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell’s defeat of Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Tuesday and Westchester County executive George Latimer’s victory over Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) in June.
AIPAC said that all 104 candidates that it endorsed won their primary battles. “Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics,” it wrote.
DMFI, which promotes pro-Israel Democrats, also touted victories of its endorsees this week, noting that Reps. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) beat back anti-Israel primary challengers. The pair—which AIPAC also endorsed—won handily in a state often reputed to be hostile to Israel, with Scholten garnering more than 90% of the vote and Stevens more than 87%.
The two pro-Israel groups declined to challenge some members of the so-called “Squad” of left-wing, anti-Israel progressives in safer seats. Neither DMFI nor AIPAC endorsed the primary challenges against Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Summer Lee (D-Pa.). Lee was a notable and rare defeat for AIPAC in the 2022 cycle after it endorsed her opponents in the Democratic primary and the general election.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) ran in an uncontested primary on Tuesday.
DMFI and AIPAC have also yet to make any moves in the Democratic primary battle in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, where Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is perhaps the most vulnerable of the remaining “Squad” members.
Omar, whose primary is on Aug. 13, faces a rematch against her 2022 primary opponent, former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, whom she beat by just 2,466 votes out of 114,567 cast.
According to public filings, the race has not attracted the millions of dollars in outside pro-Israel spending that characterized the Bowman and Bush elections, but Samuels has not shied away from attacking his opponent’s record of opposing the Jewish state.
“She becomes almost a pawn for Hamas in not being able to stake out a balanced position that understands both sides of the issue and always falls on the side against Israel,” Samuels said in an interview in June.
No independent polling has been released for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, but polls sponsored by both Omar and Samuels show her leading by double digits.
‘Incredibly unhelpful’
Bowman and Bush were the first members of the “Squad” to lose primary challenges. Pro-Israel super PACs spent millions of dollars on the hotly contested and deeply contentious races, though almost all of the advertising in both elections focused on non-Israel issues.
The pair has also faced legal challenges during the two lawmakers’ tenure, with Bowman pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in a House office building in October and Bush under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for her campaign’s spending on security services.
Bush threatened revenge against AIPAC in her concession speech. After losing the election, she doesn’t “have to worry about some strings that I have attached,” she said. “All they did was radicalize me, and so now they should be afraid.”
“AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” she said.
That language was “inflammatory and divisive and incredibly unhelpful,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
