US Republican leader Mike Rogers and his allies have reportedly asked the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) not to run a campaign on his behalf ahead of the November general election, according to a US media outlet. Rogers, who is a Republican Senate candidate from Michigan – home to one of the country’s largest Arab American populations – fears that open AIPAC support might backfire.

AIPAC’s Evolving Role and Strategy

This request came after Rogers met AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. AIPAC is officially a non-partisan group that advocates unconditional US support for Israel and pushes back against any criticism of Israeli governments and their human rights record. It was established in 1954 under its original name, the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs.

After the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 October (Yom Kippur) War, its focus widened to military aid, advocating before US Congress members for military aid and joint defense cooperation for Israel. AIPAC itself gave nothing to electoral candidates until the early 1980s, when it began using a network of separately incorporated pro-Israel political action committees (PACs), private groups that pool contributions from people and donate them to political campaigns.

That funding has been bipartisan, with AIPAC wielding significant influence in both parties; that was until a split emerged among Democrats, with progressives such as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar entering Congress around 2018 and pushing to condition military aid on human rights compliance. In December 2021, it changed strategy, directly spending through AIPAC PAC and AIPAC affiliate Super PAC United Democracy Project (UDP).

Strategic Spending and Shell PACs

Track AIPAC, an organization that records the group’s funding of US politicians, has revealed that AIPAC spent more than $6 million on just one Democratic Party candidate, Melissa Hernandez, who ran and lost against progressive Democrat California state Sen. Aisha Wahab in a special election in California’s 14th district. UDP alone raised about $104m during the 2026 cycle, according to factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit website, $87.1 million more than it collected during the 2024 cycle.

In Michigan’s Senate Democratic primary alone, it spent more than $30m backing four-term Congress member Haley Stevens against Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former public health official. It’s the most AIPAC has ever spent on one contest. Despite this, El-Sayed, who focused on health for all and the Palestinian issue, won the primary election and will face Rogers in the November election.

AIPAC has used shell PACs to obscure its spending in Democratic primaries. In the Michigan Democratic primaries, a newly formed group PAC called A Stronger Michigan donated $17m. The PAC has been mostly bankrolled by a nonprofit called Center Forward, whose stated mission is to build partisanship. A Stronger Michigan has also received funds from another PAC that was established this year, Michigan Forward 2026.

Public Disillusionment and Political Backlash

In mid-March, during elections in Illinois, AIPAC used three different PACs to advertise to boost congressional candidate Bushra Amiwala and siphon off votes from more viable progressive candidates – namely, Palestinian American activist Kat Abughazaleh, who ended up losing the race narrowly. AIPAC still wields enormous influence in US politics. Aid packages to Israel continue to pass by wide margins, and it still boasts the largest war chest of any single-issue lobby in Washington.

However, when it comes to recent efforts to sway US election results in favor of candidates who support Israel, AIPAC has faced setbacks. Part of the backlash has come from broader public disillusionment with Israel-backed policies, including the joint US-Israeli war against Iran and the genocidal assault on Gaza, which AIPAC supports. Some politicians who previously received support from the group are now disavowing it.

Last October, Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton distanced himself from AIPAC, citing the group’s support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prominent lawmaker announced he would also return donations from AIPAC. “In recent years, AIPAC has aligned itself too closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government,” Moulton had said in a statement. “I’m a friend of Israel, but not of its current government, and AIPAC’s mission today is to back that government. I don’t support that direction. That’s why I’ve decided to return the donations I’ve received, and I will not be accepting their support.

According to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted in June, 58 percent of Democrats said the US is too supportive of Israel, up from 45 percent in January 2024. Meanwhile, 60 percent of Republicans said the US support is “about right.” But as Israel’s war in Palestine, Iran, and south Lebanon continue, AIPAC has also begun losing support from Republican candidates.

Besides Michigan’s Rogers’ recent request from the group, last August, the lobby group accused right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of betraying “American values” over her criticism of Israel. Greene shot back, saying that AIPAC serves the interests of a foreign government. “I’m as AMERICAN as they come! I can’t be bought, and I’m not backing down,” she wrote in a social media post.

AIPAC has, however, repeatedly rejected the notion that it is a lobby group that serves a foreign government. Instead, the organisation has presented itself as a coalition of engaged Americans who view a close US-Israel alliance as beneficial for both countries. “As proud, pro-Israel Americans, we will never apologise for participating in the political process and standing up to those who undermine our shared values,” the group said in a recent email to supporters that listed the Senate race in Michigan as “critical”.