Friends --
Last night’s election results in Michigan’s 11th district weren’t what we’d hoped for. Facing a deluge of outside spending by AIPAC, our good friend and ally Rep. Andy Levin lost his tough Democratic primary race to fellow incumbent Rep. Haley Stevens.
All of us at J Street are deeply disappointed by the outcome, and sad that Andy will not be representing Michigan in Congress again next year. Throughout his career, he has proven himself a true mensch -- a kind, principled and compassionate leader who fights every day for his constituents, his Jewish and democratic values, and a better world. A tireless advocate for democracy, diplomacy, the two-state solution and human rights.
Faced with so much right-wing money and with baseless smears, he never wavered in his support for what’s right. J Street is proud of all we did to support his re-election and defend him from unfair attacks. We raised over $1 million in total to support Levin -- in contributions through our PAC and independent expenditures from our SuperPAC, the J Street Action Fund.
What’s so alarming about this race is how heavily impacted it was by AIPAC and its SuperPAC “United Democracy Project” (UDP), who collectively spent nearly $5 million to defeat Levin -- far more than the total amount spent by any other group. That’s just one piece of the nearly $30 million that the group is set to spend on Democratic primaries this year.
Ultimately, many voters in Michigan and across the country still don’t know that the deluge of ads flooding their airwaves were paid for by a group with a deeply unpopular, right-wing foreign policy agenda, backed in part by Republican megadonors who contributed to UDP. And they don’t know that this same group endorses and supports 109 Republicans who voted to overturn our election on January 6, 2021.
This intervention in Democratic primaries to promote an unpopular agenda is harmful to US foreign policy, to the Democratic Party and ultimately to the interests of Israel and the US-Israel relationship. That’s why J Street will continue to sound the alarm and lead the charge to counter these aggressive, divisive and harmful tactics -- in this election cycle and beyond.
We’ll continue to urge Democratic leaders, lawmakers and activists to make absolutely clear just how harmful and unwelcome these interventions in its primary contests are.
A group that attacks Donna Edwards and Andy Levin as extremists who must be defeated, while endorsing Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik, and 100-plus adherents of the Big Lie for re-election, is simply not a group that should be decisively shaping the outcome of Democratic primaries.
Even judging by their own stated goals, AIPAC’s actions don’t make much sense. Far from building sustainable bipartisan support for Israel, they have instead harmfully turned Israel into one of the sharpest wedge issues in American politics -- a source of division and frustration for many Democrats.
Instead of respectfully disagreeing with the views of a proudly pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish-American lawmaker like Andy Levin, they have smeared him as “anti-Israel,” targeting him for proposing legislation to help secure Israel’s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
They are trying to close down the critical space for honest and healthy debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in American politics that J Street and our allies have worked hard to open up over the past fourteen years.
AIPAC’s support for right-wing policies and endless occupation is deeply unpopular with most voters, including most American Jews -- who recognize that the deteriorating status quo in the region is deeply dangerous for the State of Israel, its people and its future. While they can’t win this critical debate on the merits, they appear to be trying to short-circuit it through overwhelming spending.
We cannot and will not let this effort succeed.
J Street will keep proudly serving as the political home and voice for the majority of our community. In primaries and in the general election, we’ll give our support to principled candidates who are prepared to stand up unapologetically for what’s right.
We will keep up our critical work to ensure that our national political debate about foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in honest fact and shared democratic values.
Dealing with a defeat is never easy. But we’re proud to stand on the right side of this fight and on the right side of history -- and with your support, eager to keep working every day for the better future we know is possible.
Thank you,
Kevin Rachlin
Vice President of Public Affairs
