AIPAC has spent a record amount on Michigan's Senate primary, the biggest test of its influence yet

JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Updated Sun, July 19, 2026 


From left foreground, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT. join hands together following a campaign rally, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)(AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidate Abdul El-Sayed addresses the crowd during a campaign rally, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)(AP Photo/Jose Juarez)


Michigan U.S. Sen. candidate, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., speaks with media after a debate at WoodTV studios on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Kristen Norman)(AP Photo/Kristen Norman)


SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. (AP) — Senate candidate Haley Stevens talks often about manufacturing, taking on President Donald Trump and why she's the Democrat best positioned to win Michigan. The congresswoman has far less to say about the pro-Israel group that has spent millions trying to get her elected.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its affiliated groups have spent close to $30 million backing Stevens — their largest investment ever in a single race — as they seek to defeat progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed in the Aug. 4 primary.

Stevens has largely avoided discussing the organization directly, even as its spending has reshaped the race. Asked twice about AIPAC during a July campaign stop in West Michigan, she responded for more than 800 words without mentioning the group a single time. Israel came up only once, when she said she "wanted to see the U.S. and Israel working together to rebuild Gaza."

"Anyone who supported me is supporting me because of my dedication to the people of Michigan, and the things that I have done for Michiganders," Stevens told The Associated Press when asked whether she welcomed AIPAC's support.

The exchange illustrates how politically fraught AIPAC has become in Democratic politics as the war in Gaza has divided the party over U.S. support for Israel. AIPAC works to elect lawmakers who support its mission of strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and advancing policies it says enhance the security of both countries.

AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment. The organization's super PAC, United Democracy Project, declined to comment.

The issue carries particular weight in Michigan, home to the nation's largest Arab American population. Beyond Michigan, El-Sayed's progressive allies are framing the race as a broader test of whether grassroots organizing can overcome unprecedented outside spending.

"One of the laws of nature in politics is whoever spends the most money wins," said New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed in Michigan this weekend.

"It is an opportunity to show that things other than money can win in America."
Stevens has spent $1 million on advertising. Her backers have spent $50 million

The four-term congresswoman raised half of what El-Sayed did in the latest fundraising period until June 30. Her team said in a statement that the campaign "is raising the resources we need to win this race."

She spent only $12,000 of her own campaign funds on advertising through early July, before bumping it up to close to $1 million, according to AdImpact. Outside organizations, meanwhile, have poured close to $50 million into boosting her candidacy. One of them, A Stronger Michigan, has spent roughly $12 million without disclosing its donors.

El-Sayed has made AIPAC and the tens of millions of dollars spent to support Stevens a centerpiece of his campaign. He and his allies have accused Stevens as being a mouthpiece for her large donors.

"She is nothing more than an employee of these billionaires," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also campaigning with El-Sayed this weekend at rallies in Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Stevens has said she supports "comprehensive campaign finance reform."

Most voters are unlikely to realize many of the ads blanketing Michigan's airwaves are funded by AIPAC. They never mention Israel, instead highlighting Stevens' work on manufacturing and featuring former President Barack Obama.

"AIPAC never runs on AIPAC. They never even talk about Israel and Palestine," said former Rep. Andy Levin, whom Stevens defeated in a 2022 Democratic primary after redistricting. AIPAC spent millions opposing Levin, who is Jewish. "If you're just a voter and you see a million ads, you don't know who paid for it."
A stark divide on Israel in a state with large Muslim and Jewish populations

The surge of spending from AIPAC comes as the Democratic candidates have taken sharply different positions on Israel's war in Gaza.

While Stevens is not Jewish, she has long been one of Congress' most outspoken supporters of Israel. She has described herself as a "proud pro-Israel Democrat" and once said during a Hanukkah celebration that "Israel comes to me in my dreams."

Stevens has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During a recent debate, she said he "has not made us safer, has not brought us closer to peace, and he's endangered Jews here in America and around the world."

El-Sayed has embraced the contrast. The son of Egyptian immigrants, he has called Israel's military campaign in Gaza a "genocide," described the Israeli government as "evil," and repeatedly argued that AIPAC's influence distorts Democratic politics.

"The reason that we've seen this war fought is because of the impact of AIPAC in our politics," El-Sayed said during a recent debate.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. It has since waged on for over 1,000 days. Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in its retaliatory offensive, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim U.S. senator. He recently addressed questions about whether his faith would hurt his electability in the battleground state.

"When they raise questions about my 'electability,' they are usually pointing to the most obvious thing about me that makes me 'different' — that's my name and my Muslim faith," he wrote in an email to supporters. "Faith, to me, isn't just about an identity. It's about the choices that I make every single day about how I live my life."

El-Sayed has spent about $3.2 million from his own campaign account on advertising, with around $1 million in outside spending. His campaign has instead emphasized grassroots organizing, saying it has recruited more than 10,000 volunteers statewide.

Asked how many volunteers Stevens has, her campaign said it has "hundreds across Michigan."

"This election will come down to the many versus the money," El-Sayed wrote.
The Democratic divide is occurring beyond Michigan

Once-firm support for Israel has eroded within parts of the Democratic Party in the fallout from the war in Gaza. As divisions over Israel have deepened, criticism of AIPAC has intensified.

Earlier this week, 103 House Democrats voted unsuccessfully to block $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel, the clearest sign yet of the party's divide. Among them was New York Rep. Pat Ryan, who had previously voted to send aid to Israel and accepted support from AIPAC.

"I expect groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don't want their support," Ryan said on social media, later adding that he was returning the money.

The tension also played out in 2024. In Michigan's Senate race, Democratic activists pressured now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin to take a harder line on Israel's war in Gaza. Slotkin, who is Jewish, had already distanced herself from AIPAC years earlier. She ultimately defeated Republican Mike Rogers by fewer than 20,000 votes.

Rogers is running for Senate again this year, and is unopposed in the GOP primary.

While the issue still remains divisive for Democrats, some question whether it will ultimately shape how most primary voters cast their ballots, with concerns such as the economy carrying greater weight.

"It's not that Democratic primary voters love AIPAC. They obviously don't," said Michigan political strategist Adrian Hemond. "But this doesn't even register as an issue that's influencing voting behavior for the overwhelming majority of primary voters."

New York Times raises eyebrows by referring to AIPAC as 'hard-right' pro-Israel group

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fri, July 17, 2026

FOX NEWS


The New York Times building

The House of Representatives voted on a bill to cut military and humanitarian aid funding to Israel, which failed to pass but earned majority support among Democratic lawmakers, resulting 103-98.

The New York Times is raising eyebrows among critics over how it characterized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the U.S.-based group that has become a target of anti-Israel advocates.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted on a bill brought by outgoing anti-Israel Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to cut military and humanitarian aid funding to Israel, which ultimately failed to pass but still earned majority support among Democratic lawmakers, resulting 103-98. Massie was the sole Republican vote.

In the Times' report on the vote, it highlighted how Democrats have increasingly vowed not to accept donations from AIPAC, which historically gave to both Democrats and Republicans who are supportive of Israel and its alliance with the U.S. Among those who have committed not to accept AIPAC money is Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.

"Mr. Moulton, who is running for Senate, has also said he would no longer accept donations from AIPAC, the hard-right pro-Israel lobbying group that has recently become a toxic brand among Democrats," the Times wrote.

Founded in 1954, AIPAC says its mission is to "encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel," and that it helps "elect Democrats and Republicans who support the alliance."

Prominent Democrats once joined Republicans in speaking at AIPAC's annual Policy Conference, which hasn't been held since the COVID pandemic. Among the top Democrats who spoke at its last conference in March 2020 were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. and then former Vice President Joe Biden via a video message. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke at the conference the year prior while serving as House speaker — she notably voted in favor of defunding money to Israel this week while Jeffries voted against the bill.

Critics on social media were puzzled by the Times' description of the pro-Israel group.

"@anniekarni , a veteran NYT reporter, published a piece tn which she calls AIPAC a 'hard-right lobbying group.' What possible defense can you have of this formulation about an organization whose staff is probably 70 percent Democratic, Annie? Is it fun joining the jackals?" Commentary Magazine editor John Podhoretz called out the Times reporter on Friday.

"I wish AIPAC was hard right. Or even kind of right," New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz reacted.

"AIPAC is a bunch of left-center squishes. It's only 'hard right' if you think Israel defending itself is 'extreme,'" California Post opinion editor Joel Pollak wrote.

"Shows how detached from reality a lot of media coverage of Israel has become. Most pro-Israel Jews are Democrats!" Jewish Insider editor-in-chief Josh Kraushaar exclaimed.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), led by its president, Michael Tuchin, has become a prominent target among anti-Israel progressives.

Neither The New York Times nor AIPAC responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

In the post-Oct. 7 political climate, support for Israel has dropped dramatically among Democrats while maintaining a much larger swath among Republicans. AIPAC itself has widely been scapegoated by anti-Israel advocates, many of whom falsely push the narrative that the Jewish state is buying influence through AIPAC despite the fact that AIPAC is an American organization run by pro-Israel U.S. citizens.

Standing against Israel has become a litmus test for the progressive base of the Democratic Party for political hopefuls and is widely expected to be a major issue during the 2028 presidential election.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Opinion

Riz Ahmed’s 'Bait' gives James Bond treatment to South Asian and Muslim experiences

(RNS) — The dramedy examines a young Pakistani-British Muslim chasing a sense of belonging and what it means to be fully oneself and fully Muslim.

Actor Riz Ahmed in "Bait." (Photo courtesy of Prime)

Dilshad Ali
June 12, 2026

RNS

(RNS) — In a scene about midway through Riz Ahmed’s new Amazon Prime six-part dramedy, “Bait,” struggling actor Shahjahan Latif (played by Ahmed) runs into a security agent in a London underground station whom he had been looking to hire for his family.

Latif is carrying a pig’s head in a canvas bag (more on that later) while having an existential breakdown, having run away from the police station where he went to report his house being broken into, the pig’s head thrown through the window and his family missing. But his paranoia gets the best of him, as he begins to worry that the police are racially profiling him and will consider him a prime suspect instead of seeing the crime itself as racially motivated. 

And so, on the run, he panics as he irrationally thinks police on duty at the underground station are closing in on him. Seeing the security agent he was considering hiring becomes an unexpected solace and sense of relief. In pairing up with the white agent, he perceives the suspicious eyes are no longer on him.

“Must be nice to be tall and white,” he says to the security agent.

“Membership has its privileges,” the man replies back to him.

It is this kind of membership, this kind of unattainable belonging that could possibly erase childhood memories of being violently bullied, that Latif is chasing. Something familiar to more of us who are Muslim and/or South Asian (or any non-white combination of the sort) than we may care to admit.

Guz Khan and Riz Ahmed in “Bait.” (Photo courtesy of Prime)

“Bait” is the story of Pakistani-British-Muslim actor Latif on the verge of breaking boundaries by auditioning for one of the biggest and most coveted roles in cinema — James Bond — and the lengths he goes to in order to remain relevant (in the acting community and within his family). But what it examines is chasing that sense of belonging and what it means to be fully oneself and fully Muslim — even with storylines of ending up in a club on Eid al Fitr and running around with a pig’s head in a canvas bag. (I promise, more on that later.)

For Muslims and particularly South Asians, Ahmed has become a trailblazer, helping make these communities a recognizable force in film and television. From early roles in HBO’s “The Night Of” (for which he won an Emmy) and “The Sound of Metal,” Ahmed has done much to hold Hollywood and British television and cinema to better standards in the portrayal of Muslim characters. Ever heard of “The Riz Test”? That comes from his 2017 speech to the House of Commons about authentic diversity representation on screen.

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RELATED: The streaming shows changing TV’s Muslim narrative

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“Bait,” Ahmed said, was inspired by his personal experiences, which aren’t the experiences of all South Asian Muslims. But that’s kind of the point. 

“Bait” promotional poster. (Image courtesy of Prime)

As he said in this Los Angeles Times interview, “Shah Latif … is having an identity crisis. He’s trying to work out who he is. So it stands to reason the show should also be trying to work out what it is. The show needs to be having an identity crisis.”   

Founder and editor-in-chief of the British Muslim media site Amaliah, Nafisa Bakkar, wrote in her Substack reflection on “Bait”: “Can you include something that would normally be considered haram, offensive or culturally off-limits, and still have it feel truthful rather than superficially subversive to a white gaze?” The line between offense and authenticity, Bakkar wrote, is dictated by who is telling it.

Even though my Muslim experience is certainly not Latif’s (or Ahmed’s, for that matter), they are all lived Muslim experiences, no matter the halal-to-haram ratio. 

“Bait” benefits from the wide reach of streaming platforms, which affords a show the ability to be more hyper-specific in its story telling and target audience. This has opened up a growing bank of opportunities for Muslim-oriented shows, said Zaki Hasan, an arts critic with the San Francisco Chronicle and a professor of communication and media at San Jose State University.

“Streaming plays to narrow casting and sort of slicing the demographics very thin,” he said. But can shows like “Bait” that play to a seemingly narrow South Asian and Muslim audience reach beyond those demographics?

Actors Sajid Hasan, from left, Riz Ahmed and Sheeba Chaddha in “Bait.” (Photo courtesy of Prime)

“I think that when it comes to the Muslim community, this is uncharted waters,” Hasan said. “I’m reminded of a favorite quote by writer/director Nicholas Meyer, who once said, ‘I find that in specificity you will find universality.’”

“Bait” isn’t the first show to center Muslim stories as it intersects with South Asian and Middle Eastern-North African (MENA) cultures. “Ramy” featured Egyptian-American comedian and actor Ramy Youssef, “Mo” is based on the life of Palestinian-American comedian Mo Amer, and “We Are Lady Parts” was created, written and directed by Nida Manzoor and followed an all-female Muslim punk band. All the shows were inspired in part by their creators’ lives straddling faith and culture.

“Bait” draws viewers into extreme specificities in the familial relationships, inside jokes, cultural and faith rituals and even geography of South Asian Muslim life in and around London and surrounding neighborhoods. As Bakkar noted, it’s not “sort of” brown or Muslim in its storytelling, but rather it goes all in. Latif starts off wanting to become the next James Bond and prove to Britishers (and his extended Pakistani family) that brown Pakistani Muslims can be fully British (something that is fueled by childhood experiences of being bullied).

But who has placed that mantle upon him? His family? His agent? Himself? Is it even something that needs proving, and will becoming the next Bond really make the sort of impact he is hoping for? “Bait” finds its heart in exploring these questions, even as it gets kind of bizarre by Muslim South Asian standards in the latter half of the series.

In discussing the show with a family member who enjoys Ahmed’s work as much as I do, she admitted to dropping the show after episode three when the plot had Latif leaving a family Eid celebration (rife with aunty gossip and cousin oneupmanship) to help an ex-girlfriend find her missing purse in a club. While scenes like these may alienate some Muslims who take issue with going from Eid prayers and family celebrations to dancing in a club (I mean, that’s not how many Muslims I know spend their Eid), others will relate to how Latif juggles all parts of his life.

Actors Riz Ahmed and Ritu Arya in “Bait.” (Photo courtesy of Prime)

And then there’s the pig head that Latif totes around. He begins conversing with the pig head about the weight he is carrying in trying to shed his bullied past and become a strong actor who will force white Britishers to reckon with his faith, culture and skin color. It’s a sort of twisted homage to Shakespeare’s Hamlet talking to the skull of Yorick. 

It becomes a clever clapback on anti-Muslim types who think waving a piece of bacon is Muslim kryptonite. (Yes we don’t eat pork or pork products, but we won’t wither and die in the presence of pigs or bacon.)

Yes. It’s weird, but stick with it. In reporting on Muslims for more than two decades, one of the oldest adages I’ve repeatedly fallen back on is that Muslims are not a monolith. We don’t all worship the same way or follow the teachings of our faith the same way. Whether I like it or not, “Bait” isn’t ‘My South Asian Muslim Life.’ It’s not meant to be, and that’s why it is fun to watch. It’s the kind of narrow casting that can draw in South Asian Muslims but also appeal to wider audiences because of its specificities and attention to detail.

(Dilshad D. Ali is a freelance journalist. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)