The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful and prominent pro-Israel group in the United States, has endorsed State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) for New Jersey’s 9th congressional district – a district that is home to much of New Jersey’s Palestinian American community.
AIPAC said that its endorsement of Pou stems from her stated support for Israeli self-defense, her willingness to support foreign aid for Israel when it comes up in Congress, and her opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement.
“As a State Senator and President of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), I have been unwavering in my support for Israel’s right to defend itself,” Pou said in her position paper, per AIPAC. “I support supplying security assistance, cooperative missile defense programs, and U.S.-Israel anti-tunnel cooperation while honoring all existing foreign and military aid commitments… The United States must stand with Israel against efforts to undermine our strategic partner and ally.”
Pou was chosen in August as the last-minute replacement for Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), who died on August 21 at the age of 87. The issue of Israel was an important one in the frenzied, insider-dominated process to pick Pascrell’s successor; two of Pou’s opponents, Paterson Mayor André Sayegh and Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-North Haledon), had taken pro-Palestinian stances in the past that made many party leaders in the district hesitant to support them, and Pou was ultimately seen as a more broadly acceptable compromise.
Sayegh’s and Sumter’s stances aligned them with the Palestinian and Arab American communities that live in 9th district towns like Paterson and Clifton – but as this June’s Democratic primary election revealed, those communities still make up only a small minority of the district’s voters. Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah challenged Pascrell in the primary on a Gaza-focused platform, and he lost 76%-24%.
(The district also includes a sizable Orthodox Jewish community based in Clifton and the city of Passaic, though it too is only a small portion of the plurality-Hispanic district overall.)
AIPAC has now issued endorsements in 10 of the 13 New Jersey congressional races up this year, including Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) in the highly competitive 7th district, Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran) in the open 3rd district, and incumbents of both parties in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 11th districts.
That leaves three elections where the group has not yet gotten involved: the race for U.S. Senate, where Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) faces Republican Curtis Bashaw, and the safely Democratic 10th and 12th districts, where Reps. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) are running for re-election.
The fact that AIPAC hasn’t endorsed Watson Coleman is no surprise; the congresswoman has been by far the most Israel-critical voice in the New Jersey delegation ever since the war in Gaza began one year ago today, and she was the lone New Jerseyan to vote against foreign aid for Israel when it came up last April.
The lack of endorsements for Kim and McIver, however, is a little more unexpected, given that both have expressed support for Israel in the past and backed the foreign aid package that Watson Coleman voted against. (Their Republican opponents, for what it’s worth, have also said that they stand with Israel.)
AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment on their endorsement process.