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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.

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.