AIPAC tops US midterm outside spending as backlash grows

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has become the biggest outside spender in the 2026 US midterm elections through its main election-spending vehicle, even as candidates and opponents increasingly use its support as a political liability.

Campaign finance monitor OpenSecrets says AIPAC’s United Democracy Project has spent $54 million on congressional races, making it the largest outside spender of the cycle. OpenSecrets says the wider pro-Israel donor network has spent $71 million, behind only the cryptocurrency industry.

AIPAC has focused much of its spending on Democratic primaries, backing candidates strongly committed to Israel and opposing critics of unconditional US military aid. The group has said hundreds of candidates it supported have won their primaries.

But AIPAC and allied groups also spent around $30 million in Michigan in an unsuccessful effort to stop Abdul El-Sayed from winning the Democratic Senate nomination over Haley Stevens. Progressive candidates have also defeated AIPAC-backed opponents in congressional contests in California, Illinois and New York.

The spending has drawn criticism from parts of the Democratic left and from some “America First” conservatives, against the backdrop of changing US opinion on Israel after years of war in Gaza and wider conflict in the Middle East. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48 percent of American voters, including 66 percent of Democrats, believed Washington was too supportive of Israel.