Pro-Way group’s ad blitz was funded by AIPAC donors

When the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association began spending $1.7 million to boost former Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way in a special Democratic primary election last month, the group insisted that the investment was unrelated to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which was simultaneously embarking on its own quest to vanquish one of Way’s opponents.

That was, strictly speaking, accurate: the DLGA’s PAC has not received any donations from AIPAC or its affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project. But campaign finance reports filed last week reveal that the group’s pro-Way ad blitz was nevertheless funded by donors who have close ties to the pro-Israel groups that reshaped the primary.

Between January 1 and February 5, the date of the special primary, DLGA PAC reported raising $1,932,050 in itemized donations. Of that total, $1,546,500 – just over 80% – came from donors who have also donated substantial sums to AIPAC, UDP, or a third AIPAC-linked group called Voters for Responsive Government within the last five years.

Most of those donations were given in a very short window of time between January 20 and January 22, a few days after DLGA PAC made its first pro-Way expenditures – and just after the January 16 reporting deadline, meaning that the donations weren’t disclosed until after the election was already over.

Spokespeople for UDP and AIPAC, which never officially endorsed a candidate in the 11th district race, did not respond to a request for comment on whether the wave of donations were coordinated, as their timing suggests. The DLGA’s executive director, Kevin Holst, said that his organization did not coordinate with AIPAC or solicit its support.

“The DLGA did not accept money from AIPAC or its related super PAC,” Holst said. “Any individual who believes in our mission of electing Democratic lieutenant governors across the country, and in our mission to support them as they run for higher office, we welcome their support.”

The donations appear to confirm what had long been suspected: Way was AIPAC’s preferred candidate in the 11th district primary. In recent election cycles, AIPAC, which has become increasingly controversial among Democratic primary voters, has often masked its involvement by routing donations through unrelated or newly established PACs; three ongoing House primaries in Illinois, for example, feature candidates supported by brand-new PACs that are themselves seemingly linked to AIPAC.

As Way mulls whether to run for the 11th district again in the regularly scheduled June primary, her AIPAC connections could be key. Way would start out as the substantial underdog against Analilia Mejia, the upset winner of the February primary and the district’s likely next congresswoman – but another barrage of spending from AIPAC donors could help level the playing field.

By far the largest donation DLGA PAC received this year came from the Forward Movement Foundation, which gave $1 million on January 22.

Not much is known about the foundation, a Virginia-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit that lists its purpose on IRS filings as “advancing commonsense policy solutions that benefit all Americans.” But in 2024, the foundation reported giving a $4 million donation to AIPAC; it also reported smaller donations to House Majority Forward, a Democratic-aligned independent expenditure group, and FDD Action, another pro-Israel group.

Besides the Forward Movement Foundation, DLGA PAC received another $546,500 from a set of 13 donors who have also reported donating to UDP or VRG since 2022. Those donors, most of whom hail from New Jersey or New York, made up the substantial majority of DLGA PAC’s individual donors in January and early February; most of the rest of the group’s fundraising came from industry and labor groups.

Another pro-Way PAC that invested in the special primary, Article One PAC, remains more mysterious. The group reported receiving a single donation of $350,000 from a donor called the “Guzman Foundation,” all of which it promptly spent on digital ads supporting Way, but there’s no paper trail for what the Virginia-based foundation is or what its intentions might have been; Article One PAC later got involved in a North Carolina primary where pro-Israel money was also a major campaign issue.

Way ultimately finished in third place in the special primary, earning 17% of the vote in a 11-candidate race. That’s likely better than the former lieutenant governor would have done had it not been for the outside spending on her behalf, which made her one of the best-funded candidates in the race even though her own campaign’s fundraising lagged that of several of her opponents. (Way took broadly pro-Israel stances during the campaign, saying that she would not seek to condition aid on Israel, but insisted she had nothing to do with any outside group’s decision to spend on the race.)

AIPAC’s more overt mission, however, was to defeat former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who began the race as the frontrunner before getting bombarded with $2.3 million in negative ads from UDP. The spending technically worked, since Malinowski lost – but Mejia, the candidate who unexpectedly beat him, is substantially more of an Israel critic than he ever was.

Shortly after the February 5 primary, UDP released a statement saying that the result was an “anticipated possibility” and hinting that the group may spend yet more money to influence the June regular primary: “UDP will be closely monitoring dozens of primary races, including the June NJ-11 primary, to help ensure pro-Israel candidates are elected to Congress.”

There’s also some early speculation that AIPAC may look to get involved in the crowded Democratic race for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s 12th district, where support for Israel (or lack thereof) has already become a litmus test. Asked last week about that possibility, an AIPAC spokesperson said they had “nothing to share on this as AIPAC hasn’t endorsed.”