Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist operating for Congress in New York Metropolis, posed a provocative query on X this week a few new tremendous PAC behind adverts supporting her opponent.
“Is it truly AIPAC?” she tweeted. “In a number of primaries across the nation, their donors have created PACs with innocuous sounding names — and which by no means reveal their precise agenda — to funnel thousands and thousands towards anti-apartheid candidates.”
Valdez acknowledged that different teams past the pro-Israel foyer might have an curiosity in stopping her from attending to Congress, or boosting her opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. However she made clear the place her personal suspicions lay.
“This can be a well-established sample from AIPAC and its associates, particularly when there’s just one candidate who’s been clear and constant towards the genocide,” she wrote.
Given AIPAC’s large unpopularity amongst Democrats, spending by the group in New York’s deeply progressive seventh Congressional District, which covers elements of Brooklyn and Queens together with the so-called Commie Hall, might have actual repercussions.
However in contrast to in another districts the place anti-Israel candidates have turned AIPAC spending towards them as leverage, Valdez gave the impression to be incorrect concerning the supply of the spending.
A minimum of, that’s what a serious labor chief concerned within the tremendous PAC, Actual Struggle NYC, informed Metropolis & State on Wednesday.
“There can be no means anybody on my crew wherever would do something with AIPAC,” mentioned Randi Weingarten, the Jewish president of the American Federation of Academics. Although donors had not but been disclosed, Weingarten confirmed to the outlet that the AFT had contributed about $200,000 to the tremendous PAC, and that AIPAC was not amongst its contributors.
“We don’t help AIPAC. We don’t play with AIPAC,” she mentioned.
Blasting an opponent’s help from AIPAC is just not a brand new addition to the progressive playbook. Brad Lander, operating in close by NY-10, has put the incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman’s AIPAC endorsement entrance and middle in his marketing campaign, and candidates in Illinois accurately recognized AIPAC’s “shell organizations” akin to Elect Chicago Girls.
However the publish by Valdez, a staunch Israel critic who has the endorsement of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, seems to have backfired, drawing criticism from throughout the ideological spectrum.
“I’ve stayed mum on this race, and I’ll get s–t for this however I don’t care — this can be a disappointing accusation from somebody I’ve lots of respect for,” wrote Democratic pollster Adam Carlson, who ceaselessly expresses help for progressives, responding to the tweet. Carlson questioned why AIPAC would even again a candidate like Reynoso, who like Valdez accuses Israel of committing genocide.
He continued, “The concept anybody crucial of her marketing campaign have to be AIPAC-backed is only speculative, actually cynical & overly incendiary.”
Seth Mandel, a conservative, wrote in Commentary that some donations to Reynoso did come from individuals who had additionally donated to AIPAC — making Valdez’s feedback extra offensive, in his view. “Often anti-Semites declare to have Jewish pals as a method to deflect accusations of bigotry on their half; right here we now have somebody who apparently thinks an opponent having Jewish pals is totally disqualifying,” he wrote.
Valdez’s feedback come at a time when AIPAC’s tremendous PAC has raised eyebrows with stunning expenditures — like boosting a trailing Israel critic to try to siphon votes from a number one one. The group has grow to be a bogeyman, even for individuals who fear that the outsized consideration it attracts would possibly stoke antisemitic attitudes.
“I really feel queasy speaking about it, given the antisemitic tropes at play right here about Jews and cash and energy,” Lander, who has campaigned alongside Valdez, informed The New York Instances this month. “However I’ve to.”
In a now-deleted tweet, Morris Katz, a Valdez marketing campaign advisor and high Mamdani adviser, mentioned it was “both deeply dishonest or stunning [sic] naive for folks” to reject that the brand new PAC was an AIPAC entrance.
AIPAC didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Valdez’s feedback and the backlash over them got here as she herself has confronted criticism from her high opponents, Reynoso and Metropolis Council member Julie Gained, over her backing from a handful of tremendous PACs. A kind of PACs is American Priorities, a gaggle that’s borrowing from AIPAC’s playbook with a view to elect pro-Palestinian members of Congress — and which is paradoxically changing into a lightning rod for criticism much like assaults on AIPAC-backed candidates.
“Might you assist me perceive, how might you wish to finish Residents United and now not have tremendous PACs funding our campaigns, but take tremendous PAC cash your self to your marketing campaign?” Gained requested Valdez through the debate.
Valdez replied that she is operating a grassroots marketing campaign and pointed to her greater than 20,000 marketing campaign donors, including that she is just not being backed by main lobbies like AIPAC, crypto or AI PACs. American Priorities has spent about $455,000 on TV and digital adverts boosting Valdez, based on FEC filings.
Valdez, Reynoso and Gained — all progressives — are vying for the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a 16-term stalwart who’s retiring. Every candidate accuses Israel of getting dedicated a genocide in Gaza, and all help enforcement of the Worldwide Prison Courtroom’s arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu if he steps foot in New York Metropolis.
No pro-Israel teams, even people who again candidates who’re closely crucial of Israel, has issued an endorsement within the race.
“Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez has been a longtime J Road champion and a tireless advocate for peace,” mentioned Tali deGroot, VP of political and digital technique for the liberal pro-Israel group J Road, in an announcement to JTA. “Whereas we issued no endorsement within the race, we stay up for working with the eventual nominee to hold on her legacy to struggle for a peaceable future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
The newest polling information, collected in mid-Might, had Valdez at 23% and Reynoso at 21%, with a 5.2% margin of error. Gained trailed in third at 13%, whereas 43% of voters have been undecided.
A former union organizer, Valdez — who was first elected to the Meeting final yr — has the least expertise in elected workplace of the three.
She has additionally been essentially the most vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian battle. Her platform features a complete arms embargo towards Israel and signing onto the Block the Bombs Act, which might halt the switch of sure weapons to Israel.
She has attended quite a lot of protests organized by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace and was arrested throughout a 2025 demonstration on the workplaces of Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand that referred to as for them to oppose weapons gross sales to Israel. Later that yr, she spoke at a JVP protest calling for incoming comptroller Mark Levine to renege on his promise to speculate metropolis funds in Israel bonds.
In Might, Valdez cosponsored the reintroduction of Mamdani’s “Not on Our Dime” act that’s geared toward blocking nonprofits from funding Israeli settlements within the West Financial institution, however which has been criticized for being overly broad and doubtlessly concentrating on teams exterior its supposed purview.
JVP’s political arm endorsed Valdez, whereas left-wing group Jews for Racial and Financial Justice is endorsing each Valdez and Reynoso.
Valdez’s endorsement listing additionally consists of main left-wing figures akin to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Rep. Ro Khanna, former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and quite a lot of progressive native electeds, in addition to the DSA’s New York Metropolis chapter.
Reynoso, in the meantime, has the backing of the outgoing Velazquez, the left-wing Working Households Celebration, state Lawyer Normal Letitia James, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and quite a lot of different progressive officers.
Gained has been endorsed by a handful of native electeds, in addition to New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim and 4 U.S. Home representatives.
Valdez has blasted Reynoso for accusing Israel of genocide solely since he launched his marketing campaign for Congress. Valdez was among the many earliest native politicians to take action, and started calling for a ceasefire in October 2023. Neither marketing campaign responded to questions despatched by JTA.
Regardless of Valdez’s line of assault — and her accusation that AIPAC could be backing him — Reynoso shares many points of Valdez’s Israel platform. He opposes sending each offensive and defensive weapons to Israel and mentioned throughout a debate that he want to see Democratic management make that stance “a tenet of our celebration.”
Throughout that debate, moderator Errol Louis requested Reynoso if he’s had conversations about his Israel stance with members of his massive Jewish constituency as Brooklyn borough president.
“They’re not joyful. A lot of them should not joyful, particularly within the central elements of Brooklyn,” Reynoso mentioned. Quite a few massive Orthodox Jewish communities reside in central Brooklyn, which isn’t a part of the seventh Congressional District.
He then cautioned that opponents of Israel shouldn’t let their criticism bleed into criticism of the Jewish folks.
“I additionally wish to say that we wish to be ensuring that we separate this concept that Israel, and what it’s doing in its genocide of Gaza, is tied to the Jewish folks,” Reynoso mentioned. “We’ve to have the ability to separate that as we tone down this antisemitism that we’re seeing in our metropolis.”
Whereas Reynoso has confronted some resistance primarily based on his Israel stance, a gaggle of Hasidic leaders in closely Orthodox Williamsburg endorsed him earlier this month.
In Might, following a protest exterior an Israeli actual property occasion at a synagogue in Brooklyn, Reynoso condemned the occasion in an announcement, and didn’t touch upon the protest, drawing outrage from some Jewish New Yorkers (together with a Republican Metropolis Council member).
“The sale of illegally occupied land within the West Financial institution is an injustice that solely prolongs any likelihood of peace for Palestinians and Israelis,” Reynoso wrote. “Disgrace on people who enable these gross sales to occur right here in Brooklyn or wherever else.”
A few week earlier, Valdez criticized the police response to a protest exterior one other Israeli actual property occasion, held at Park East Synagogue.
“New Yorkers don’t simply have the precise to protest the sale of stolen Palestinian land — they’ve a accountability to,” she wrote.
Not like different congressional races in New York, that are pitting extra institution Democrats towards progressive challengers who’re extremely crucial of Israel, NY-7 is a contest between progressives who largely agree on learn how to method the U.S.-Israel relationship.
On the protest exterior Levine’s workplace final fall, Valdez declared that there’s “no extra urge for food for ‘progressive aside from Palestine.’”
She added, “We’re leaving these politics within the dustbin of historical past.”
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