The New York Times published an interactive analysis on Aug. 4 of the campaign spending of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, drawn from Federal Election Commission filings and from advertising data collected by the tracking firm AdImpact.
Spending by AIPAC-affiliated political action committees has more than doubled in three election cycles, from $29.3 million to $67.2 million. The organization was for decades a lobbying group focused on legislation and on sending members of Congress to Israel; in 2022 it created a super PAC, the United Democracy Project, which the Times finds has since spent more on television, radio and digital advertising in federal elections than any other special-interest group not affiliated with a political party. Individual donations to it spiked after October 2023.
Between April 2022 and the end of July 2026, AIPAC funded 109 television and digital advertisements. Only six of them refer to Israel. The rest take up abortion rights, the economy and other issues that polling indicates rank higher with voters. Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the United Democracy Project, told the Times that other super PACs do the same—"In most races affordability issues are much more important than Israel”—and stated the objective: “Our goal is to elect the largest bipartisan pro-Israel majority.”
Nearly all of it goes into primaries rather than general elections: $138 million against $4.65 million across the 2022, 2024 and 2026 cycles. Because the group describes itself as bipartisan, it rarely spends where it would have to choose between a Democrat and a Republican.
The largest single investment is being decided today. In Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, the United Democracy Project has spent more than $10 million supporting Rep. Haley Stevens and more than $20 million opposing Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Only one outside group has spent more on any primary this year.