{"id":284253,"date":"2026-02-10T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/284253\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:50:08","slug":"aipac-campaigns-against-pro-israel-candidate-in-nj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/284253\/","title":{"rendered":"AIPAC campaigns against pro-Israel candidate in NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

If AIPAC has any regrets about pouring more than $2 million into opposing a candidate who calls himself pro-Israel – and ultimately lost to an anti-Israel opponent – it isn\u2019t saying so. In fact, the pro-Israel group\u2019s affiliated super PAC suggests it would do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have a focus on stopping candidates who are detractors of Israel or who want to put conditions on aid,\u201d Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for the United Democracy Project, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The target of the UDP\u2019s recent spending was Tom Malinowski, a former congressman running in a special election in New Jersey\u2019s 11th Congressional District, who conceded on Tuesday morning. Malinowski, who calls himself pro-Israel and has been endorsed by the liberal Zionist organization J Street, has said he\u2019d be open to placing conditions on some US aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

AIPAC<\/a> pummeled Malinowski with $2.3 million in negative ads – but not about Israel. Instead, the ads tarred him from a progressive angle – one emphasized his vote on a 2019 bill that included increased funding for ICE, the immigration enforcement agency.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Malinowski congratulated the winning candidate, Analilia Mejia, and credited her for \u201crunning a positive campaign and inspiring so many voters on Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"REP.REP. TOM Malinowski (D-NJ) speaks as members of Congress share recollections of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2022 in Washington, DC. (credit: Graeme Jennings-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the outcome of this race cannot be understood without also taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads during the last three weeks,\u201d Malinowski wrote.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI met several voters in the final days of the campaign who had seen the ads and asked me, sincerely, \u2018Are you MAGA? Are you for ICE<\/a>?’\u201d<\/p>\n

By one measure, AIPAC\u2019s spending could be seen as a success: The candidate it opposed, seen as a favorite, did not score an easy win on Election Day. But in another crucial way, the effort appears to have backfired by throwing open the door for Mejia, a progressive grassroots organization leader who is far more critical of Israel.<\/p>\n

Mejia, who was the national political director for Bernie Sanders\u2019 2020 presidential campaign, was ahead of Malinowski by less than 1,000 votes when he conceded the race. Tahesha Way, the former lieutenant governor of New Jersey who is thought to have been AIPAC\u2019s preferred candidate, finished in a distant third.<\/p>\n

AIPAC supporters criticize strategy in NJ race<\/p>\n

Critics, including AIPAC supporters, have slammed AIPAC\u2019s strategy in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could not have gotten a worse result than what they got,\u201d said Alan Steinberg, a journalist in New Jersey<\/a> who was an EPA administrator under George Bush. \u201cI\u2019m a very pro-AIPAC person, very supportive of AIPAC, but this is one of the worst strategic errors that they could\u2019ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UDP got into the race because of Malinowski\u2019s comments on US aid to Israel at a time when a large number of Democrats, and some Republicans, were expressing new openness to attaching conditions to the aid as they sought to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and adopt different policies in Israel and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Asked last fall about the possibility of conditioning or suspending aid to Israel, Malinowski told Jewish Insider that he \u201cwould make case-by-case judgments given what\u2019s happening on the ground.\u201d He said he would similarly make case-by-case judgments for any US ally receiving aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had very serious concerns about Tom Malinowski, who clearly was open to conditioning aid to Israel,\u201d Dorton said. \u201cHe knew that he had moved to what is not a pro-Israel position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorton indicated that the UDP would likely pursue other candidates who have expressed openness to or interest in conditioning aid. \u201cAdding conditions to aid to Israel, and undermining the US relationship, is a top priority for us in assessing candidates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In New Jersey, the result could be elevating a politician whose stance on Israel is much harsher. Mejia has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and pledged not to take any AIPAC-funded trips to the country. She also began calling for a ceasefire in Gaza within weeks of Hamas\u2019 October 7, 2023, attack on Israel after tweeting on October 10, \u201cEvery fiber of my being is horrified beyond words at what is furthering in Gaza. Yet again we see how oppression & dehumanization leads to despair & unthinkable destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meija endorsed by Bernie Sanders, AOC<\/p>\n

Mejia\u2019s campaign focused on affordability, and she drew endorsements from progressives, including Bernie Sanders<\/a>, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ro Khanna. If she holds her lead, she will become the Democratic nominee for April\u2019s special election to fill the House seat vacated by now-governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steinberg said he thought that AIPAC \u201cnever took seriously the possibility of her winning in this primary,\u201d and that Malinowski would be far more aligned with AIPAC on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Malinowski is anti-Israel,\u201d said Steinberg. \u201cI know Tom, I disagree with him on Israel, but he is much preferable to Analilia Mejia. Much preferable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, which endorsed Malinowski, wrote in a Substack column that AIPAC was responding to criticism of the Israeli government\u2019s policies as if it were hostility toward the country itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAIPAC now treats even good-faith criticism from friends as a threat to be crushed,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Malinowski wrote that his \u201csupport for Israel as a Jewish and democratic state\u201d would not waver \u201cbecause of who supports or opposes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut our Democratic Party should have nothing to do with a pro-Trump-billionaire-funded organization that demands absolute fealty to positions that are outside the mainstream of the American pro-Israel community, and then smear those who don\u2019t fall into line,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Dorton downplayed the impact of a Mejia primary victory, noting that the upcoming special election decides only which candidate will fill the seat until the end of 2026. A second primary, held in June 2026, will decide the Democratic nominee for the regular November election.<\/p>\n

But others see her potential win as a larger victory for progressives, and specifically for the pro-Palestinian movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnalilia Mejia for New Jersey just set a new precedent in NJ and beyond,\u201d wrote pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour in a Facebook post on Monday featuring a photo of Mejia raising her hand as the lone candidate indicating that she believed Israel committed genocide, at a forum hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cShe\u2019s teaching us that it\u2019s okay to stand alone so as [sic] long as you are on the right side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UDP has spent millions on congressional races to mixed results since AIPAC began directly funding candidates in 2021; it had previously worked only to cultivate support for Israel among politicians. In 2024, it spent at least $14.5 million against the incumbent \u201cSquad\u201d member Jamaal Bowman in New York, and more than $8 million to take down Cori Bush in Missouri; both incumbents lost their primaries. But the $4.5 million it spent was not enough to beat Dave Min for Katie Porter\u2019s House seat in California.<\/p>\n

Now, the upcoming midterms will likely serve as a test of AIPAC\u2019s strength as lawmakers and voters on both sides of the aisle distance themselves from Israel and its advocates. They will also answer the question of what dividends AIPAC – whose PAC opened the year with a nearly $100 million war chest – will draw if it focuses on punishing candidates who show insufficient support for Israel.<\/p>\n

Dorton said he is not concerned. The UDP is looking ahead to the June midterm primaries and will \u201ccontinue to run ads that move the needle\u201d in primary races about issues that mostly don\u2019t involve Israel, he said. He added that the group is assessing polling data and \u201ccandidate viability\u201d in dozens of races around the country, including in NJ-11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a strong bipartisan pro-Israel majority in Congress,\u201d Dorton said. \u201cAnd we intend to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If AIPAC has any regrets about pouring more than $2 million into opposing a candidate who calls himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83118,69373,108,20810,10041,85,134286,46,77165,145743,18300,43,58,22869],"class_list":["post-284253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-aipac","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-anti-israel","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-council-on-american-islamic-relations","tag-il","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-agency-ice","tag-israel","tag-j-street","tag-jamaal-bowman","tag-new-jersey","tag-news","tag-the-october-7-massacre","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}