AIPAC Ends Endorsements After Two-Year Pressure Campaign

AIPAC announced last Wednesday that it will stop endorsing candidates and making direct PAC contributions. The organization sent a letter to members stating that endorsements and earmarking will no longer be part of its approach. No new law required the change. The decision followed two years of organized pressure from activists.

The campaign began with a specific slogan. Members of the Squad launched a drive to Reject AIPAC. They pressed colleagues to swear off the group's money. Justice Democrats called the support a kiss of death. Activists handed out red cards to candidates who accepted money they could trace to the pro-Israel lobby. One organizer told The Intercept that the category of covered money was as broad as possible by design.

Candidates responded by returning funds to donors. Seth Moulton, a centrist Democrat, returned $37,800 to 18 individual Americans who gave through AIPAC's portal. He made this announcement the day after launching his Senate run. Moulton kept $11,500 linked to Nelson Mullins, a lobbying firm that represents the government of Qatar. The 18 American donors were struck from his records while the foreign government's lobbyists remained.

Jeremy Moss, a Democratic state senator in Michigan, identified who these donors are. He was attacked in his primary this summer with mailers about his AIPAC-linked donors. Moss examined the list and recognized the names. They were people from his synagogue and parents of friends he grew up with. Moss told Jewish Insider that when the label is removed, what remains is simply Jews.

The group faces increased scrutiny in a climate of rising antisemitic violence. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in May 2025. Weeks later, a man firebombed a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder. An elderly woman died of her burns from that attack. The ADL recorded more antisemitic assaults in 2025 than in any year since it began counting.

AIPAC operated within established legal frameworks before the pressure mounted. Its lobbying budget last year was $3.8 million. That amount is one-nineteenth of the Chamber of Commerce's $72 million budget. The group opened a super PAC only in 2021. Its United Democracy Project raised $87 million in the 2024 cycle. That total ranked 11th in the country, behind Elon Musk's America PAC at $263 million and the crypto industry's Fairshake at $260 million.

The group's financial disclosures followed standard practices. Its members are American citizens. Its money is publicly disclosed. Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, foreign governments pay for access in Washington. Qatar has paid American lobbying firms $269 million since 2016. No similar pressure campaign has targeted candidates for accepting money from these foreign lobbying firms.