The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a tremendously powerful and well-funded pro-Israel lobbying group, has decided there’s one candidate in the special election for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district that it really doesn’t want to see win: former Rep. Tom Malinowski.
Yesterday morning, the United Democratic Project, AIPAC’s political spending arm, began airing a harsh attack ad against Malinowski, with $350,000 spent so far and more likely still to come. And as has been typical for the PAC when it’s gotten involved in other races around the country, the ads have nothing to do with Israel; instead, they focus on an immigration-related vote Malinowski took nearly seven years ago.
UDP did not respond to questions on why the group has decided to oppose Malinowski, or on which of Malinowski’s ten opponents it would prefer to see win the February 5 Democratic primary. There are some signs, though, that Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way may be AIPAC’s preferred candidate in the race.
Speaking with the New Jersey Globe, Malinowski called the content of the ads “laughably preposterous” and predicted that they would lead to backlash against AIPAC rather than against him.
“I have many pro-Israel supporters in the district, including AIPAC members, who believe you can be passionately pro-Israel while being critical of Netanyahu,” Malinowski said. “To say that they’re appalled by this ad would be an understatement. In fact, I’m reading a collective sense that AIPAC has lost its mind.”
The debut of the ad thrusts the crowded election to succeed Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill into long-running battles in the Democratic Party over AIPAC’s influence in Democratic primaries. UDP has spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat more progressive candidates in a number of House races starting in 2022, but this is its first time touching down in New Jersey – and, depending on the ultimate size of its investment (the group had $39 million on-hand as of last June), its involvement could reshape the truncated race to succeed Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill.
The ad itself targets a vote Malinowski took in 2019, when House Democratic leaders reached a deal with the GOP-controlled Senate and President Donald Trump to pass a funding bill that included money for both humanitarian aid and law enforcement at the southern border. Malinowski joined a majority of his fellow House Democrats in supporting the bill over the loud objections of some of the caucus’s most progressive members.
Connecting that funding to the current Trump administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown, the ad declares that “we can’t trust Tom Malinowski” to fight against the president.
As Malinowski noted, though, there are some holes in AIPAC’s line of attack. For one, plenty of progressive members of Congress voted for that bill; Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), typically seen as New Jersey’s most liberal congresswoman, supported the bill, as did Sherrill, who was then in her first term representing the 11th district.
For another, AIPAC has shown little interest in domestic immigration issues before now, and its history of endorsing both liberal Democrats and pro-Trump Republicans suggests that it does not consider immigration enforcement to be an important litmus test.
“AIPAC supports plenty of Republican candidates across the country who are pro-mass deportations,” Malinowski said. “It’s not like this is their issue.”
Why, exactly, AIPAC decided to target Malinowski specifically remains somewhat unclear; the congressman said he remains pro-Israel, and he’s even taken some flak from the left in the past for being too supportive of Israel. (There’s also another prominent candidate in the race, Analilia Mejia, who has espoused far more blatantly Israel-skeptic stances, once even criticizing AIPAC by name for spending to defeat progressives in a pair of 2024 House races.)
And if AIPAC is intent on making Malinowski lose, who does it want to win instead? That, too, is murky – neither AIPAC nor UDP has made any public statements or endorsements in the race, and the ads themselves don’t push voters towards any one candidate – but Malinowski said he’s been told that the intended beneficiary is Way, who has been New Jersey’s second-in-command since 2023.
Way, for her part, began receiving a separate form of outside assistance yesterday from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, which is spending $590,000 on TV ads to promote Way in what is, per the FEC, the group’s first-ever TV expenditure in a federal race.
The ads were bought by the same firm as UDP’s ads, and are set to air on the same channels, including some rather specific choices like HGTV, the Food Network, and Black Entertainment Television. AIPAC has been known in the past to work in tandem with other independent expenditure groups.
DLGA executive director Kevin Holst, however, denied that his group’s spending in the race is at all tied to AIPAC or UDP, saying that his group has been “on the record about our commitment to boost our Lieutenant Governors as they seek higher office in 2026.” The DLGA’s PAC reported around $1.8 million on-hand as of last June (long before the 11th district special election even existed), none of it from AIPAC or UDP.
Way’s campaign neither confirmed nor denied any connections between Way and AIPAC, saying in a statement only that Way has no say in what actions outside groups like UDP (and the DLGA) choose to take.
“We can’t control what outside groups do, but we can ensure that we are laser-focused on working every day to talk directly to voters about Lieutenant Governor Way’s record of lowering costs and standing up for New Jersey families,” Way spokesperson Sophie Mestas said.
