NYTimes: AIPAC got its first big victories of 2026 — and a tough loss.

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Stratton Wins and AIPAC’s Power Is Tested: 4 Illinois Takeaways

Democratic voters put Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton on a path to the Senate, while the pro-Israel lobby notched its first major victories of the year but also faced a tough defeat.

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No group dominated the political conversation before the Illinois primaries more than AIPAC.

The pro-Israel lobby disguised some of its spending through new super PACs with innocuous and unrelated names — Elect Chicago Women and Chicago Progressive Partnership — and acknowledged its quasi-hidden hand only after the results were in.

All told, AIPAC-linked groups spent roughly $20 million in four House races, winning two and losing two.

AIPAC found success supporting Melissa Bean, a moderate former House member who won a primary against Junaid Ahmed, a progressive challenger, and it also backed Donna Miller, a Cook County commissioner who prevailed in a different district. Super PACs tied to AIPAC spent $8.4 million combined on those races.

But believe it or not, AIPAC-linked groups spent even more in the races they lost, laying out the most money in Illinois’s Ninth District.

In that race, the groups spent $4.4 million to support Laura Fine, a state senator, who finished in third place. They also spent $1.4 million opposing Daniel Biss, the Evanston mayor, and $1.2 million opposing a third candidate, Kat Abughazaleh, an outspoken Israel critic. One of the AIPAC-linked groups even made a last-minute gambit to promote a fourth candidate, Bushra Amiwala, who the group said after the election was “anti-Israel,” seemingly to siphon votes from Ms. Abughazaleh.

Mr. Biss won, and addressed AIPAC directly in his victory speech. “The Ninth District is not for sale,” he said.

And in the Seventh District, AIPAC’s main super PAC spent $5 million supporting Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the city treasurer of Chicago, who lost to La Shawn K. Ford, a state representative.

The Illinois elections were especially freighted for AIPAC after the group face-planted in a New Jersey special election last month, spending heavily to stop a moderate former congressman from winning and instead winding up with a pro-Palestinian progressive nominee, Analilia Mejia.

1 reply
  1. Paracelsus88
    Paracelsus88 says:

    Thank you Kevin for posting this crucial commentary. I have been urging our readers (as a monthly donor to your efforts I feel that I’m a part of “our” TOO community) to support both your site and the Anti-Zionist America PAC. I don’t know if AZA-Pac supported any of the Illinois “non-AIPAC” candidates. However, it is encouraging that AZA-Pac’s thrust is being validated. Their website for interested readers is: http://www.AZA-Pac.com I hope this opens alright.

    Finally, I will vote against any federal, state or local politicians that have embraced AIPAC & Trump’s subservience to Netanyahu in all future elections. Even those who I held my nose to “vote for” against the proverbial “lesser evil”.

    Thank you.

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