AIPAC’s Only General-Election Target Is An L.A. Progressive

By Ryan Grim and David Dayen, The American Prospect

In July of 2023, just five days after he launched his third consecutive campaign for Congress in California’s 34th Congressional District, David Kim got a request he wasn’t prepared for. AIPAC—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—wanted to meet. The organization had sent the message through a trusted emissary, a high-profile businessman in the local Korean community who was an acquaintance of Kim’s and a sometime political ally.

Kim told his friend that the meeting wasn’t necessary. He understood AIPAC’s position on the question of Israel, Palestine, and Washington, and it was at odds with his own view. Thanks, but no thanks.

david kim stands in front of some buildings and palm trees

AIPAC and its allied super PAC have spent some $100 million this year to install a Congress friendly to Israel amid its brutality in Gaza and Lebanon. But it’s always done so with a conceit that fealty to Israel takes precedence over party politics. AIPAC endorsed 233 Republicans and 152 Democrats over the course of the 2024 election cycle, and maintains the pretense of being a bipartisan organization. But most of its spending this cycle came in primaries targeting progressive Democrats who were insufficiently supportive of Israel.

When it comes to the general election, AIPAC has only gotten financially involved directly in a single race, and it’s David Kim’s.

The attempt to beat back one last progressive is happening in a district in Los Angeles spanning downtown, Koreatown, and Boyle Heights, where Kim, a children’s court public attorney, is mounting yet another challenge to incumbent Rep. Jimmy Gomez. Both are Democrats, an artifact of the “top two” primary system in California, where the two leading vote-getters in the March primary advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

Gomez prevailed 53-47 over Kim in 2020 and by an even closer margin in 2022, winning by about 3,000 votes. Kim has generally run to Gomez’s left in the previous two races.