Post-primary campaign finance filings are providing new insights into the funders behind late-stage ad campaigns against two prominent Jewish Democratic candidates who ran, and ultimately lost, in the Democratic primary in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.

State Del. Dan Helmer and former state House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn expressed strong support for Israel in their campaigns and faced backlash from some on the far left. Helmer came in second, falling four points short of state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam. Filler-Corn finished in fourth place.

In the final days of the campaign, Helmer was accused of groping a woman at a 2018 Democratic event, a claim that he denied and said was being spread by individuals supporting his opponents. The claims were boosted by a super PAC, which spent around $14,000, largely on text messaging outreach.

The primary supporter of the anti-Helmer PAC, Virginians Against Sexual Assault, was Avram Fechter, the former chairman of the Loudoun County Democrats, who contributed a total of $10,000. 

Fechter insisted to Jewish Insider that the only motivation behind the PAC was that Helmer was “credibly accused of having sexually assaulted a Loudoun County Democratic committee member, and we didn’t want to see us nominate someone in that position.” Fechter said he and other Loudon Democratic leaders were told about the allegation at the time the incident happened.

Anyone suggesting that the PAC was motivated by Israel issues “is just deflecting from the core facts of this case,” Fechter asserted. “It had nothing to do with Israel.”

When Filler-Corn announced her candidacy for the same seat last year in an interview with JI weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, touting her support for Israel and Jewish faith, Fechter criticized “the timing and nature of Filler-Corn’s announcement,” accusing her of “seeking to leverage the horrible events of the past two weeks for her personal political gain.”

“It is wrong to use the ongoing suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians as justification for a premature primary campaign announcement,” Fechter said at the time, while arguing that the “vast majority” of Democrats in the district support Israel.

The Loudoun County Democrats leadership voted to pass a $1,000 donation from Filler-Corn to a Gaza relief charity and the Red Cross Israel.

Fechter emphasized to JI that he’s Jewish, noted that he helped host a candidate forum for the primary with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and said several key donors to the PAC are also Jewish. He stood by his criticisms of Filler-Corn’s announcement, calling it “disgusting” and “opportunistic.”

Other major donors included Virginia Now PAC, the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, which donated $3,000. The campaign of state Sen. John Bell, who is now retired, also donated $3,000.

A handful of other individual donors contributed smaller $500 and $250 donations. Among the $500 donors was Esam Omeish, who resigned from Virginia immigration’s commission in 2007 after revelations that he had accused Israel of genocide, claimed that the “Israeli agenda” controls Congress and advocated for “the jihad way.”

Virginia NOW, Bell and Omeish did not respond to requests for comment.

Separately, Filler-Corn came under fire from another PAC with ads that she claimed were antisemitic and sexist, accusing Filler-Corn of catering to the interests of business groups instead of voters. The group spent $187,000.

The PAC behind those efforts, Virginia Democratic Action PAC, was supported by three major Virginia donors: Sonjia Smith, Edward Rice and Albert Dwoskin.

Smith is a prolific donor who has also contributed to Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Summer Lee (D-PA), former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Nina Turner, as well as the Justice Democrats, J Street and the Working Families Party.

But she also donated to Helmer and Subramanyam’s campaigns, and to pro-Israel Jewish lawmakers like Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) and former Rep. Elanie Luria (D-VA), and to other candidates who’ve expressed strong pro-Israel views and to a PAC that boosted a pro-Israel candidate over a more progressive challenger in Oregon.

Smith and her husband, Michael Bills, have said their primary focus is on climate issues. The ads against Filler-Corn hit her, in part, for alleged ties to the oil industry.

Virginia Democratic Action PAC did not respond to a request for comment. Smith and Rice could not be reached for comment and an email to Dwoskin bounced back.

The race proved to be a magnet for independent spending.

Other outside groups involved in the race included the pro-crypto PAC Protect Progress, which spent nearly $4 million supporting Helmer; VoteVets, which spent $1.3 million supporting Helmer; the Indian-American group Impact Fund, which spent $580,000 for Subramanyam; Democratic Majority for Israel, which spent $150,000 for Filler-Corn; the pro-veteran With Honor Fund, which spent $165,000 for Helmer; the Working Families Party, which spent $30,000 against Filler-Corn; REPRO Rising Virginia, which spent $65,000 supporting Israel critic state Sen. Jennifer Boysko; pro-Filler-Corn group Virginians United for Progress, which spent $34,000 supporting her; and the Muslim group Emgage, which spent $12,500 for Israel critic Atif Qarni.