AIPAC did its second poll this year on potential candidates to challenge members of Congress who have criticized Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
By Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Pro-Israel groups are considering backing two potential primary challengers against progressive Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa.
A survey sent earlier this month to people living in Pittsburgh and its suburbs asked for respondents’ opinion on two possible candidates to challenge Lee. The survey included a question on people’s opinions about the candidates being backed by “a right-wing organization that supports Trump and is funded by MAGA millionaires and billionaires.”
The survey question appears set up to test whether voters would oppose one of the candidates because of backing from groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — which is funded by billionaire donors to Donald Trump and, in 2020, endorsed more than 100 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the results of that year’s presidential election.
The wording was identical to another survey sent in May to constituents in the district of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., The Intercept reported. That survey was the first this year to indicate that AIPAC was considering a primary challenge against Omar.
With the latest poll, it appears that AIPAC and possibly other pro-Israel groups are setting their sights on another challenge against Lee.
“As usual, AIPAC sees the Democratic electorate begging for more progressive leadership that takes on the corporate elite, and they are desperate to force corporate shills down our throats instead,” said Usamah Andrabi, the communications director for Justice Democrats, a group backing Lee. (AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment.)
The survey in Lee’s district also said both potential candidates, Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler and former Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, were backed by “pro-Israel groups that lobby Congress to provide billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in aid and weapons to Israel each year.”
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