AIPAC Spent $55m Backing Losing Candidates in 2026 Midterms, Report Finds
Nearly two-thirds of the pro-Israel lobby's $84m in midterm spending went to failed campaigns, with the biggest share aimed at defeating Michigan's Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed.
By Evelyn Adeyemi ·
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee poured more than $84m into the 2026 US midterm elections, but close to two-thirds of that money backed candidates who lost, according to a new report from Responsible Statecraft.
The report found that AIPAC's Super PAC and affiliated groups spent about $55m on unsuccessful campaigns. The single largest share, roughly $32m, went toward an effort to stop Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who won his race regardless.
The outcome ranks among the lobbying group's weakest election performances in years. It suggests that the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has fed into soaring cost-of-living pressures, resonated strongly with voters.
The figures stand in sharp contrast to recent election cycles. In the 2022 midterms, 69 percent of spending by AIPAC's Super PAC, the United Democracy Project, went toward races that its preferred candidates won. In 2024, following the war in Gaza, that share climbed to 87 percent.
In his victory speech earlier this week, El-Sayed took direct aim at the group, citing a higher figure that may also reflect spending by smaller Super PACs. "To Aipac, who spent $42m against us. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice," he said, referring to the group's earlier attempt to defeat him in the Democratic primary.
AIPAC also spent nearly $6m trying to defeat Daniel Biss, a critic of Israel's policies and a former mayor of Evanston, Illinois. Biss, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, won the Democratic primary in Illinois's 9th congressional district earlier this year and easily carried the heavily Democratic district on Tuesday night.
Despite the high-profile losses, the group pushed back on the idea that its influence is fading. AIPAC claimed victory on Wednesday, saying on X that "more than 234 candidates supported by AIPAC members" had won their races, though it did not identify which contests it was counting. Thousands of candidates ran in the midterms, and the organisation remains a force to reckon with in Washington, DC.
The Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate have received funding from AIPAC members. "We congratulate Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the resounding victories for their caucuses," the group said in a statement.
Opponents of the group nonetheless described Tuesday's results as a watershed moment in US politics. AIPAC Tracker, which monitors the organisation's influence in Washington, listed 30 members of Congress who won their seats while eschewing AIPAC ties.
In an election postmortem written on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said Republicans lost the elections because of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which AIPAC endorsed, and because of the party's relationship with Israel.
