Republican Senate candidate asks AIPAC to halt support
Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Michigan, has requested that AIPAC refrain from running advertisements on his behalf, fearing that public association with the lobby could prove detrimental to his campaign. This follows a high-profile $30 million effort by the organization against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, which Republicans believe backfired.
An unusual rift has emerged between AIPAC and the staff of Mike Rogers, the Republican Party candidate for the Senate in Michigan, after his allies asked the pro-Israel lobby in Washington not to publish ads on his behalf, as reported on Saturday by 'Axios'. The dispute does not concern the positions of Rogers, who is considered a staunch supporter of Israel, but rather the fear that public identification with AIPAC will hurt him in the midterm elections in November.
According to the report, Rogers spoke last week in Los Angeles with the chairman of AIPAC, Michael Tuchin. The very next day, the lobby shelved an election video that had been prepared against Rogers' progressive rival from the Democratic Party, Abdul El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel. AIPAC invested more than $30 million in an attempt to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primaries, where he competed against moderate pro-Israel candidate Haley Stevens, and planned to spend millions more to assist Rogers in the general elections on November 3.
However, the Republican headquarters believes that AIPAC's aggressive campaign achieved the opposite result: El-Sayed made the lobby's intervention a central issue, presented Stevens as dependent on the pro-Israel lobby, and eventually defeated her by a narrow margin of 1% (about 15,000 votes). Even before his victory, he taunted the organization:
"AIPAC, if you are listening, come back and burn the money again."
El-Sayed has previously called Israel a "rogue state," accused it of "genocide" in the Gaza Strip and of "apartheid," and refused to clarify if he recognizes its right to exist as a Jewish state. Because of his positions, his defeat became a major goal for AIPAC.
Rogers' team suggested that the lobby help in less overt ways — among other things, by directing donors to a political action committee (PAC) that supports him, contributing to a joint fundraising framework, or lending strategic advisors. AIPAC rejected the proposal and demanded to play a public role in the effort.
Sources in the organization claimed that Rogers' rival would link him to the lobby anyway because of his support for Israel. According to the report, direct contacts between the parties have been stopped for the time being, and Jewish-Republican donors are now trying to mediate. The party fears that AIPAC, whose political committee held nearly $60 million at the end of July, will decide to stay out of the race.
The background to this sensitivity is Michigan's status as a swing state, where one of the largest Arab-American populations in the US resides. A poll by the "Fox News" network recently found that 55% of the state's residents oppose the continuation of American aid to Israel. Despite the crisis, Rogers said:
"I welcome any support from the pro-Israel community and am proud of its involvement."
AIPAC has not yet responded to the remarks.
