Sanders Demands Democrats Ban Super PAC Spending in Primaries After AIPAC Blitz

AIPAC is reportedly slated to spend tens of millions opposing Abdul El-Sayed and backing his Republican opponent.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has called on Democratic leaders to ban super PAC spending from the party’s primaries after AIPAC poured $32 million in the Michigan Senate primary race to defeat pro-Palestine Democrat Abdul El-Sayed — and is now poised to support his Republican opponent.

Sanders made the demand in a mock letter, posted on social media on Sunday, addressed to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), and Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin.

He says that it is not in Democrats’ interest to continue allowing super PACs like those funded by AIPAC to exercise such wide influence over Democratic primaries when they then work to defeat the party’s candidate in the general election.

“Corporate super PACs — including crypto, AI and online betting special interests — have already spent a record $517 million this election cycle, shattering the record set in 2024,” Sanders wrote. “It is absurd that they spend tens of millions of dollars to try to determine who the Democratic nominee is and, if they fail, then proceed to support the Republican candidate in the general election. That is not democracy. That is not what Democratic voters want.”

In his letter, Sanders references recent reporting that AIPAC plans to spend tens of millions more in Michigan’s Senate race in an effort to elect Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

This move comes after AIPAC, through its super PAC United Democracy Project, spent a record amount of money on the primary election backing Rep. Haley Stevens (D), adding to another roughly $30 million spent by other corporate-backed super PACs. Stevens was ultimately defeated in the latest voter rejection of AIPAC and its candidates.

Other recent reporting revealed that a Republican-linked group has spent over $4.3 million on Democratic primary races in contested areas in recent months in order to back or oppose certain candidates.

Sanders said that it is imperative that Congress pass a constitutional amendment to repeal the precedent set by Citizens United v. FEC, but that banning super PACs from spending in Democratic primaries is a way for Democrats to break from the “corrupt system.”

“Right now, the Democratic Party has the power to prohibit super PACs from participating in its primaries,” he said. “The time to act is now.”

Other lawmakers have also recently called on the party to take action on super PAC spending.

“All across the country, we continue to see corporations & super PACs pour millions of dollars into elections to buy politicians. Americans are sick of it,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) in a post on social media on Friday. She called for Congress to pass Sanders’s and Rep. Summer Lee’s (D-Pennsylvania) bill to set a limit for super PAC spending at $5,000.

The DNC has faced consistent calls to take action on outside spending in elections, in particular by Sanders. In a letter to Schumer and Martin last year urging the DNC to pass a resolution on the subject, he and other senators said that Americans “are disgusted with a corrupt political system that allows Elon Musk to spend $270 million to elect Donald Trump.”

But the DNC has thus far refused to take action, even on narrower provisions. Earlier this year, the DNC voted down a symbolic resolution that sought to limit outside spending in primaries. The resolution called out AIPAC in particular.