Organized Money: How AIPAC Tries to Dominate the Business of Politics

Are American voters changing their minds about the Israel lobby in American politics?

https://prospect.org/2026/04/15/organized-money-how-aipac-tries-to-dominate-the-business-of-politics/


Credit: MarioGuti/iStock

On March 17th, candidate Daniel Biss defeated 15 other Democratic challengers in the primary election for Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District. It was one of the most closely watched in the country, in which Biss, and other candidates, were up against millions of dollars in ad spending from dark-money super PACs like Elect Chicago Women and Chicago Progressive Partnership. These vaguely named PACs were all fronts for AIPAC, the big-spending pro-Israel lobbying group that threw money and ads at various candidates in hopes of electing Laura Fine, who eventually came in third.

Biss won by putting AIPAC, and their influence, at the center of his campaign. Today on the show, Matt Stoller and David Dayen talk with Biss about what it’s like to go up against the AIPAC lobbying machine, how these super PACs use their vast resources to distort the race in real time, and what Democrats should do if they take back Congress in the upcoming midterms.