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**JUNE 9, 2022**

Will AIPAC Crush One of Congress's Most Prominent Jewish Democrats?

BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

Former union organizer and synagogue president Andy Levin is being
challenged by AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, largely over his
progressive views.

In the early weeks of the 2022 Democratic primary cycle, no development
has been more consequential than
the
rise of richly funded pro-Israel groups spending millions of dollars in
House races to crush progressives and boost moderates, especially in
open seats. Their record so far has been largely successful-candidates
backed by Democratic Majority for Israel PAC and AIPAC's United
Democracy Project have won high-priced contests in North Carolina and
Ohio, and barely fell short of taking out Summer Lee in Pennsylvania in
a race she was winning by 30 points at one stage.

The same groups have unleashed attack ads

against progressive Rep. Marie Newman in her incumbent-on-incumbent race
against pro-climate change moderate Rep. Sean Casten in Illinois. But
maybe the most fascinating race pro-Israel groups look set to train
their considerable money on is Michigan's 11th District, another of
the small handful of incumbent-on-incumbent Democratic races brought by
redistricting. Rep. Andy Levin has lived in the newly drawn 11th
District for most of his life; Rep. Haley Stevens, who has represented
the old 11th District, moved there in November 2021.

Already, Democratic Majority for Israel, AIPAC, and Pro-Israel America,
another bipartisan pro-Israel group, have endorsed

Stevens, and AIPAC has raised substantial money on her behalf. In March,
the group had contributed about $2,900 to Stevens's campaign directly
and bundled $280,000 in individual contributions earmarked for her
campaign, making her a top Democratic recipient of AIPAC money. The
group's political action arm has also raised money for a slate of
politicians that includes a number of Michigan Republicans, and has
endorsed over 100 GOP members who voted against certifying the 2020
presidential election results.

Another fundraiser of Jewish supporters, including some AIPAC
affiliates, raised

another $380,000 on Stevens's behalf.

What makes those endorsements and fundraising so stunning is not the
dollar value; it's the fact that Levin, the candidate they are
opposing, is Jewish, while Stevens, whom they support, is not. And Levin
is not merely of Jewish heritage. He's a prominent Jewish leader in
the community, and a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families
in Michigan Democratic politics. Levin's father Sander Levin, whom
Andy succeeded in the House in 2019, represented the Jewish community
north of Detroit from the early 1980s. His uncle, the late Carl Levin
,
served as a Michigan senator between 1979 and 2015.

Until his election to Congress in 2018, Andy Levin was the president of
his synagogue, Congregation T'chiyah in the Detroit suburbs, as well
as chair of the steering committee of Detroit Jews for Justice.

So far in the Democratic primary cycle, pro-Israel groups have spent
millions of dollars to boost moderate candidates and hobble progressive
ones, often in races where Israel played little to no role in the
campaign. In certain instances, those PACs have spent lavishly to
elevate moderate Jewish candidates: In Pennsylvania's 12th District,
United Democracy Project, AIPAC's newest super PAC, spent over $4
million to boost the moderate Steve Irwin, who is Jewish, over Black
progressive Summer Lee, in a race that Lee eked out. In other races,
those groups have spent to boost moderates where neither candidate is
Jewish. But Michigan's 11th District marks the first instance this
year where these deep-pocketed pro-Israel groups have targeted a Jewish
politician in favor of a non-Jewish one.

It's not the first time that pro-Israel groups have put Jewish
candidates in their crosshairs. Democratic Majority for Israel PAC
opposed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, and
even unsuccessfully opposed Rep. Sara Jacobs, a Jew, in favor of
non-Jewish candidate Georgette Gómez in the 2020 primary in
California's 53rd District.

But Sanders has famously spoken little of his Jewish heritage during his
political career. Not so for Levin, who on top of his involvement with
his synagogue, sports broad support amongst Jewish groups. Over 100
Jewish leaders
,
activists, and rabbis published a letter

in support of Levin attesting to that fact: Levin's "connection to
Jewish identity and community have served as a touchstone for him," the
letter states. "We believe Andy is well equipped to lead in the fight
against antisemitism, white nationalism and other forms of bigotry and
hate wherever they arise."

Levin is likely being targeted by AIPAC and others not merely for his
progressive bona fides and sponsorship of Medicare for All, but for
authoring the Two-State Solution Act
,
a bill that would prohibit the use of American military aid for the
demolition of Palestinian homes or the further Israeli annexation of the
West Bank or Gaza, and reverses a handful of Trump administration
decisions to sever diplomatic ties with Palestine. It also funds
peace-building initiatives in the region. Attacking a Jewish pro-peace
congressmember, in this case, just happens to dovetail with supporting a
moderate over a progressive.

The race looks likely to bring in the Congressional Black Caucus as
well, another group that has taken interest in races where progressives
might be vulnerable to being knocked off. Rep. Joyce Beatty, chair of
the CBC, has endorsed

Stevens in the race. Stevens is also not Black.

Stevens and Levin were roped together into Michigan's 11th thanks to
redistricting, and some moderate Democrats criticized

Levin in the press for not vacating the new district, which is safely
Democratic and consists entirely of Oakland County, and running in a
more Republican neighboring region like MI-10. But it's Stevens who
sports a record that's thoroughly out of step with the liberal base in
MI-11, a district she just moved to a handful of months ago (moving, in
fact, from MI-10).

Stevens was a vocal advocate of President Trump's signature trade
deal, the USMCA, and then touted

the support of lobbying groups and business alliances who cheered her
for supporting its passage, including the Livonia Chamber of Commerce
and the National Association of Manufacturers, the lobbying group
credited

with pushing the 2018 Trump tax cuts across the finish line. She
received $2 million worth

of support from Michael Bloomberg in 2018 that helped her eke out her
win against Republican Dave Trott; no surprise, she was an enthusiastic
endorser of Bloomberg in the 2020 presidential primary.

Stevens's spotty record on workers and wages goes beyond that. As The
Intercept reported
,
Stevens teamed up with Republicans to weaken House Democrats'
$15-minimum-wage bill in 2019, acting as "the only Democrat on the
Education and Labor Committee who joined Republicans in voting for two
controversial amendments: one which would have exempted millions of
workers employed by small businesses from the wage increase, and another
which threatened to nullify the legislation altogether if a Government
Accountability Office report found that the wage increases would
contribute significantly to job automation." The bill never became law.
Before she got to Congress, she worked as disgraced financier Steve
Rattner's chief of staff, helping institute the two-tier wage and
benefit system as part of the auto bailout that resulted in union
autoworkers still being worse off in terms of income

in 2018 than they were before the Great Recession.

Levin, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of a handful of unionization
efforts. He spearheaded

the successful effort to allow congressional staffers to unionize, which
passed the House in May, and traveled to Bessemer, Alabama, in support

of the Amazon union drive last March, which kicked off a wave of union
activity in the country that President Biden has endorsed. Stevens, on
the other hand, has received a maximum donation from Amazon's
corporate PAC.

With just under eight weeks until the election, it's likely that there
is big money on the way in the form of independent expenditures from
United Democracy PAC and DMFI PAC. Already AIPAC has been tweeting at
Levin regularly, impugning his record in a way that leaders of other
Jewish groups have called untrue
.
Specifically, AIPAC has said that Levin wants to "divide Jerusalem."
Even the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which is supporting
Stevens in the race, called that a lie
that was
"needlessly divisive, counterproductive & blatantly false."

Thanks in part to the bundling help from AIPAC, Stevens holds a sizable
fundraising advantage, raising $1.1 million in the year's first
quarter compared to $767,268 for Levin. She has $2.8 million

on hand; Levin has just $1.5 million. It's very likely that there will
soon be millions of dollars in independent expenditures put toward
blanketing TV, digital, and radio with anti-Levin messaging as well.
Progressive Jewish groups like J Street, which has endorsed Levin, will
have to spend considerably to offset the coming impact.

Losing Levin, one of the most vocally pro-union Democrats, at a moment
when union activity is at a high and the Democratic president has called
himself "the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union
administration in American history," would be a disastrous look for the
party, especially in a crucial, union-dense swing state like Michigan.
It would also mark the most consequential triumph for those pro-Israel
super PACs in the cycle so far, using millions in ad buys and
fundraising to take out a member closely allied with the White House in
a district with solidly liberal leanings. It would be the strongest
proof yet of the efficacy of unlimited spending in politics, and its
ability to deliver political outcomes.

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Labor's John L. Lewis Moment

Will today's unions invest big-time in the young workers now beginning
to rebuild American labor? Or will they remain AWOL and ensure the
movement's continued decline? BY STEVEN GREENHOUSE, HAROLD MEYERSON

Biden's New Favorite Industrial-Policy Tool Isn't Funded

The DPA has become the president's pet executive authority, and could
kick-start American energy manufacturing. But funding is scant and
largely controlled by the Pentagon. BY LEE HARRIS

Can Democrats Keep Georgia Blue?

Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, and Black Lives Matter activists are
teaming up to consolidate Biden's 2020 victory. BY ELI DAY

Greg Casar Superstar?

The organizer, groundbreaking Austin policymaker, and congressional
nominee plans to be the House's 'most pro-labor' member. BY GUS
BOVA

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