WASHINGTON – Democrats are grappling with their support of Israel, with many rejecting campaign money from pro-Israel groups and Rep. Angie Craig is among the lawmakers who have been caught up in the shifting attitudes of her party.
Since she first ran for Congress in 2018, Craig’s campaign has received more than $800,000 in money linked to the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).
A MinnPost analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings showed that of that money, $400,400 was raised through the pro-Israel group in the months before she announced her bid for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat a year ago.
Yet AIPAC continued to help Craig, hosting about a dozen fundraisers for the lawmaker after she announced she was running for Senate last April. One was held at the Los Angeles office of the organization’s president, Michael Tuchin, in October.
Related: AIPAC funnels more than $200,000 to Angie Craig’s campaign
Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Craig’s Democratic rival for Smith’s seat, is a progressive who has never had the support of AIPAC and has vowed not to take any money from the pro-Israel group.
Craig’s history of support from AIPAC could hurt her as she vies for the nomination of her party at the state Democratic convention at the end of May, at which the delegates will trend progressive and more critical of Israel than other members of the Democratic Party.
Craig is the only Democrat from Minnesota’s congressional delegation featured on an AIPAC webpage promoting incumbent lawmakers.
AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment on this story but in the past has told MinnPost that “our grassroots members strongly support Rep. Craig as she has demonstrated a solid commitment to advancing the US-Israel relationship.”
As President Donald Trump’s poll numbers slump and the opposition dominated key special elections, the Democratic Party appears to be in ascendancy.
But the party still has the problem that bedeviled it in 2024 – a divide when it comes to the U.S. relationship with Israel.
The Iran war has brought the issue into greater focus, with an increasing number of Democrats distancing themselves from AIPAC and like-minded pro-Israel organizations.
They cite AIPAC’s deep-seated support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom many Democrats blame for the Iran war — and the organization’s opposition to even the most modest of policy shifts, including the conditioning of U.S. military aid and the closer monitoring of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries broke ranks with AIPAC last year. Instead, he accepted the endorsement of a rival organization, J Street, that is much more critical of the Israeli government.
And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who was once a major AIPAC donor, washed his hands of the group last month after it spent millions trying to influence the results of Democratic primaries in his state.
“AIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of,” Pritzker told the Associated Press.
In past campaign cycles, AIPAC spent heavily on Democratic challengers to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-5th District.
Last week, legislation sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would block the sale of bulldozers to Israel won the votes of 40 Democrats in the Senate, including some traditionally pro-Israel lawmakers. There are 46 Democrats in the Senate and two independents like Sanders who caucus with Democrats.
A second Sanders-backed resolution that would block the sales of thousands of 1,000-pound bombs to Israel won the votes of 36 Democrats.
Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith voted for both resolutions.
‘A very complex issue’
A spokesman for the Craig campaign said the lawmaker’s Senate campaign “has not received any donations from the AIPAC PAC and does not plan to.” Those donations are capped by the FEC at $10,000 so the financial loss to the campaign is minimal.
In fact, most of the help AIPAC has given Craig, D-2nd District, has come through “bundled” contributions. That means AIPAC collects multiple individual contributions – capped by the FEC at $3,500 for a primary and another $3,500 for a general election — and delivers them to a candidate in a single package.
So, the fundraisers AIPAC hosted for Craig brought in additional money that was not directly linked to the pro-Israel organization.
A Craig campaign spokesman said if the issue is “that the congresswoman is supported by Jewish donors who also support Israel, then it should be pointed out that all Americans have the individual right to support a candidate.”
“The congresswoman has been clear and vocal in opposition to Trump’s war with Iran and said Trump should be removed from office,” the spokesman said.
The Democratic Party grappled with the issue of Israel earlier this month at the Democratic National Committee’s convention in New Orleans.
The party rejected a resolution that rebuked AIPAC for its involvement in Democratic primaries. Another resolution that would place conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel was deferred to an Israel working group that was established last August, when the party met in Minneapolis.
The group was established after a key DNC committee voted down a symbolic resolution calling for an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel.
“Every day, something is changing. It’s a very complex issue that, again, we need to bring all sides together to come up with what the solution is,” said DNC official Jorge Neri. “Us passing a resolution isn’t going to stop a war, but us coming together as a working group to figure out how our party moves forward, I think, is an approach that we need to take.”
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Meanwhile, DNC chair Ken Martin, who is the former head of Minnesota’s DFL Party, argued in a post on X that a resolution approved by the DNC that addressed concerns about “dark money,” instead of going “one-by-one,” addressed all concerns about outside spending.
Dark money is political spending where the donor is undisclosed and used to help or hurt a certain candidate through the funding of political ads — most commonly attack ads — independent of a candidate campaign. AIPAC-linked groups spent tens of millions of dollars of “dark money” in the 2024 election.
Craig is by no means the only Minnesota member of Congress to have had substantial help from AIPAC.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, whose ability to raise political money is boosted by his position as House Majority Whip, has raised more than $1.24 million with the help of AIPAC since 2013. About $640,000 of that money was raised in 2025 alone. And Emmer and Reps. Brad Finstad, D-1st District, Michelle Fischbach, D-7th District — as well as Craig — are featured on AIPACs website of “Pro-Israel Members of Congress,” which features a link that allows individuals to donate to their campaigns.
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