2028 Dem hopefuls scramble for distance from AIPAC

[Celerity]

Democrats eyeing White House bids are distancing themselves from the powerful pro-Israel group amid slumping support for Israel within the party’s base.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/24/2028-democrats-reject-aipac-00841350

https://archive.ph/fiNVo

Democrats eyeing White House runs in 2028 are preemptively breaking up with AIPAC. Sen. Cory Booker, who received donations bundled by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as late as December, told POLITICO that he’s sworn off the group’s funds (and other PAC money). California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he never has and “never will” take donations from the group. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) vowed last week that he “wouldn’t take AIPAC money” anymore. A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he has “never taken money or solicited support from AIPAC,” while a spokesperson for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said “AIPAC has never contributed to Gov. Beshear and they’re never going to. Ever.”

Their retreat underscores how rapidly AIPAC has become a bogeyman for Democrats seeking to criticize the Israeli government, particularly with the Netanyahu administration’s involvement with President Donald Trump’s operation in Iran. Many former AIPAC-friendly Democrats see the historically bipartisan group as becoming more and more aligned with Netanyahu’s right-wing government in recent years. Its emergence as an early touchstone in the shadow 2028 presidential primary reflects a calculation among leading Democrats that liberal voters’ hard shift away from the longtime U.S. ally will stick. “This is going to be a huge flashpoint in the primary throughout 2027 and into 2028,” said veteran Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh, who advised Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. “The constitution of the party just in the makeup of the voters has changed dramatically. The politics of Israel has changed dramatically.”

Recent AIPAC critics also include some Jewish Democrats who had previously supported the organization or received its backing. After AIPAC poured $22 million into Illinois primaries last week to mixed results, Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire who does not accept outside funds, accused the group of becoming pro-Trump and said he wants no part of the group he once donated to. A spokesperson for Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) pointed to a podcast in which she said she swore off AIPAC’s support in 2022. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — a supporter of Israel whose father is Israeli and who previously held dual citizenship with the country, but who has also been a longtime critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — told POLITICO he “need not worry about AIPAC’s support. It will not be forthcoming.”

Democrats cited a variety of reasons for rejecting AIPAC’s cash. Booker said it was part of a broader pledge he made at the start of the year to swear off all PAC money going forward. “I don’t believe we should be accepting any PAC money at all from anybody,” he told POLITICO on Friday. Gallego likened taking the group’s backing to “endorsing what’s happening right now” in Iran and Gaza while appearing on POLITICO’s “The Conversation.” And progressives like Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who have been highly critical of the Israeli government and have repeatedly sparred with AIPAC, have accused the group of targeting their campaigns and long rejected its financial aid. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) bluntly told POLITICO: “I don’t take their money, they’re running ads against me.”

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related:


Do not ever forget AIPAC and its RW billionaire mega/MAGA donors supported/endorsed 109 insurrectionist traitor MAGA congress members in 2022.

When I see MAGA and RW billionaires getting involved with our primaries, my suspicions go up, and AIPAC places fealty to the ultra RW fascist, racist, homophobic Netanyahu coalition government above American democracy by their very actions in American politics.

In 2022, AIPAC endorsed 109 Rethug traitors who refused to certify Biden, almost of whom still push the Big Lie Including

The christofash Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
Gym Jordan
Byron 'We blacks had it better under Jim Crow' Donalds
Ultra MAGAt Elise Stefanik
Darrell 'Dirtbag Moneybags' Issa
Greg 'Crazed Gunhumper' Steube
Ronny 'I was honoured to be Trump's Drunk Dr Feelgood' Jackson
Joe 'You Lie!' Wilson
John 'I am a racist, climate change-denying MAGAt, but hey look!, Democrat Henry Cuellar campaigns and fundraises for me so it's all good' Carter

plus more shitstains like: Troy Nehls, Virginia Foxx, Andy Biggs, Clay Higgins, Tim Burchett, Steve Scalise, Beth Van Duyne, etc etc etc

much more here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218940616#post6

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

[2naSalit]

2. K&R

[Intractable]

3. I'd like to see Schumer and Jeffries refuse AIPAC money. I doubt that will happen.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. AIPAC should be radioactive for Dems

But beware of shell/shadow PACs with roots in AIPAC, or with the same agenda.

[B.See]

5. I expressed similar concerns

re AIPAC, quite some time ago, for which I received some degree of blowback, as I recall.

Interesting to now see more on the left finally waking up.

[aocommunalpunch]

6. Doing the bidding of AIPAC

is just gross. Put down the pacifying money. It’s a fucking political opiate, I swear.