AIPAC Still Lost After Spending 30 Million Dollars to Buy One Senate Primary

AIPAC put a record bounty on Abdul El-Sayed. Small donors beat it. In Missouri, the same money won. This is what a bought election looks like.

Aug 05, 2026

Stevens and El-Sayed are in a close race for Michigan's Democratic Senate nomination | MPR News

AIPAC spent 30.6 million dollars trying to decide who gets to represent Michigan’s Democrats. The money is not about health care, not about rent. It was used on ads to tell the voters which Democrat to pick. The money is about propaganda. It was the most the lobby has ever spent on a single race. However, Abdul El-Sayed won anyway.

In the end, that 30 million dollars all got thrown in the garbage, into the water, wasted. If you add up every outside group, close to 65 million dollars poured in to prop up Haley Stevens and bury El-Sayed, who ran on small donors, only with a Sanders endorsement, and completely got outspent, nearly out of the building. His win was built on 20-dollar small donors against a wall of dark money.

However, you might miss this. The AIPAC money did do something. In Missouri, the same night, Wesley Bell, the man AIPAC spent almost 9 million dollars to install two years ago, beat Cori Bush again. This round was roughly 3 million dollars more, spent mostly to bury her. It’s the same playbook, but a different result. What I’m saying is, this is because AIPAC is still very strong. Be aware. The only difference is that working people have to organize to out-organize the money.

This is what they’re doing. They move money inside the Democratic primaries, against Democrats, to protect one position. Same in Michigan, same in Missouri: it was Democrats against Democrats. So it’s not about a party. Party had nothing to do with it. It was Israel, the donor class, against the people, against the grassroots movement and the small donors with just 20 dollars to support the movement.

Ancient Rome ran elections too, until the wealthy men simply bought the outcomes and the vote became a ritual staged over a decision already made. The democratic process stayed, but Rome is long gone.

Refer a friend

Now El-Sayed faces Mike Rogers. Rogers thinks El-Sayed will not win in November. But let’s talk about him. The day after January 6, Rogers said Trump clearly provoked the Capitol attack, and that Biden won 2020 fair and square. His words. Then he wanted the seat. So he went to kiss the ring for Trump’s endorsement, licked the boot, and cleared his primary with it. This man has no principle. He will do anything for his own political power. You expect a man like this to work for the people? He’s part of the machine.

AIPAC just wrote its biggest check ever, and all that money is now in the garbage. It lost the primary. A lobby like that does not fold. It will move the game to November, and all that money will go to Rogers. It might not carry AIPAC’s name, but it will get laundered through some friendly shell.

The thing is, working people in a so-called democratic country like the United States get told that the ballot is the one thing money cannot touch. But the reality is the opposite. A record 30 million dollars in a single primary is the proof. With money, a fair and square democratic election, is a fairy tale. You can only win this with the working class, united and organized together to beat the money.