Why Pro-Israel PACs are helping oust Democrats in their primaries

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Pro-Israel lobbying groups spent millions of dollars to help defeat Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Bush, who's part of a group of progressive House Democrats known as the Squad, was a vocal critic of Israel and its military actions in Gaza. She was defeated by St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell.

The campaign became one of the most expensive House primaries this year. And it's not the first time pro-Israel groups have poured money into a house primary. Joining us now to talk about it is Nick Wu. He covers Congress for Politico. Welcome.

NICK WU: Thanks so much for having me.

CHANG: Well, thanks for being with us. So let's start with the pro-Israel groups we're talking about specifically here. Who are they? And why are they involved with U.S. primaries?

WU: So we're looking at several pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, and Democratic Majority for Israel. And these are groups that, generally speaking, try to elect more pro-Israel legislators, and that's why they were involved in this primary and other Democratic primaries this campaign cycle.

CHANG: OK. And in your recent piece, you focused on one of the most powerful groups, the United Democracy Project, which is the super PAC of AIPAC. You say that they pumped over $8 million into Bell's campaign. Tell us more about this group.

WU: That's right. So AIPAC, you know, is the big pro-Israel group. And then this is its super PAC, the United Democracy Project. And although they've spent a little bit in Republican primaries this cycle, the vast majority of their spending has been in Democratic congressional primaries, both with Cori Bush's last night and with Jamaal Bowman's in June. And these are progressive legislators known as part of the Squad who have generally been very critical of the Israeli government. And that is what has caused AIPAC and UDP and these pro-Israel groups to try to unseat them from office.

CHANG: Beyond Cori Bush's position on Israel, was there something about Missouri that motivated the United Democracy Project to pour millions of dollars into that particular primary race?

WU: So going into this race, Cori Bush was already looking like somewhat of a vulnerable incumbent. She had encountered some personal scandal earlier this year when a federal investigation was disclosed into her campaign's spending on security services. She had alienated some vocal allies by voting against the bipartisan infrastructure package that moved through last Congress. And so this is what allowed these pro-Israel groups then to really seize on this opportunity to boost Wesley Bell, who was a particularly strong challenger to Cori Bush because of his own local ties and his own progressive record as a prosecutor.

CHANG: What's interesting is even though the United Democracy Project is fundraising against candidates based on their positions on Israel, in most of their advertisements, there's no mention of Israel. Why is that?

WU: This is an approach we've seen with quite a few advocacy groups. You know, for - the environmental groups, for example, don't always run groups on the environment when they get involved in races. But what makes this different is just the sheer scale of the money that pro-Israel groups like UDP were putting into these congressional races. Jamaal Bowman's race and Cori Bush's race are now the first and second most expensive house primaries in history.

CHANG: So we have seen UDP pouring tens of millions of dollars into a bunch of primary races. Bowman and Bush were just two, and they were the most expensive house primaries this year. What does that tell us about UDP's power and AIPAC's power to affect the outcome of U.S. elections, in your mind?

WU: I think it shows that for these races, you know - they're somewhat of a unique case. The - you know, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman were already vulnerable incumbents heading into this primary cycle, and UDP, through this heavy spending, was able to help tip the scales in the balance of these relatively strong primary challengers.

The flip side of this is that other members of the Squad who have espoused much of the same sort of rhetoric about Israel, have voted much of the same way, like Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, either didn't face any primary challengers at all this cycle or are very likely to prevail in their race, like Congresswoman Omar is next week because she has managed to fundraise so much on her own and shore up local relationships - you know, the kind of local relationship-building that you need to do as a politician to stay in office.

CHANG: Nick Wu covers Congress for Politico. Thank you very much.

WU: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.