Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss has a lot of endorsements in his campaign for Congress in a Detroit-area Democratic primary — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and several other state and local officials — but AIPAC is not one of them. 

That has not stopped Don Ufford, one of Moss’ opponents, from trying to tar the Jewish lawmaker as a pawn of the pro-Israel group in the final days of the race. 

A mailer that Ufford’s campaign sent to the homes of voters in the district described Moss as a “career politician who has taken thousands from AIPAC-linked donors.” A website operated by Ufford’s campaign, titled “AIPAC Jeremy Moss,” said that Moss is “for them, not for working Michiganders like you.” 

Ahead of the Aug. 4 primary, it’s a strategy that has raised eyebrows in the 11th District — the seat being vacated by Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) — which includes the heart of metro Detroit’s Jewish community. 

“The language on his mailers was very clear to say AIPAC-linked donors,” Moss told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday. “One more dig deeper than that is just — it’s Jews.” Some of Moss’ donors have also supported AIPAC, but he does not think their involvement in the political system should be suspect.

“I went through the donors and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, those people go to synagogue with me. These people are the parents of my childhood friends,’” Moss said. “It does touch many people’s ears as if it’s trafficking [in] antisemitism.” 

Stevens has represented the area since 2019, but her decision to run for Senate created a rare open seat in the Democratic-leaning district. Her Senate opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, has made Stevens’ support from AIPAC a key tenet of his campaign. But where AIPAC — which has become toxic in a wide swath of the Democratic Party this cycle in the wake of the war in Gaza — has spent tens of millions of dollars to boost Stevens, the group is not involved in Moss’ race.

“AIPAC has definitely been more talked about during this election year than I recall in past years,” Adam Duberstein, a clinical psychologist in the district who serves on the city council of Clawson, a small Detroit suburb, told JI. “I’m incredibly surprised by it. I really am, because I don’t think that I even really knew what AIPAC was a couple years ago.”

Ufford, a former Biden administration official who previously served as director of global vehicle engineering at Ford, is not Moss’ only opponent, but he appears to present the biggest threat to the state senator. 

Moss has raised $1.4 million throughout the campaign, compared to Ufford’s $1 million haul. Ufford is making strides to catch up: In the second quarter of this year, Ufford narrowly outraised Moss, $435,000 to $414,000. The two have also received dueling endorsements from Detroit’s hometown papers: The Detroit News endorsed Ufford, while the Detroit Free Press backed Moss. 

Mark Goldenberg, Ufford’s campaign manager, said Moss’ claim that the anti-AIPAC messaging traffics in antisemitism is “an outrageous and dangerous accusation.”

“Don is a longtime friend to Michigan’s Jewish community and will continue to be,” Goldenberg told JI. “Don believes it’s wrong for Jeremy Moss to run for Congress with a campaign funded by large Donald Trump and MAGA donors, and that Moss was wrong to support Trump’s 2025 strikes on Iran.” 

Moss has received $1,000 from Democratic Majority for Israel, and he also earned the endorsement of Jewish Democratic Council of America. 

Gene Farber, a lawyer in West Bloomfield, said he expected the anti-Israel attacks on Moss to “be less resonant in this district than some of the others” because of the large Jewish population. 

“I think Jeremy’s in good shape,” said Farber, “but I’m not in other parts of the district.” 

Even in heavily Jewish West Bloomfield, the intensity of the political moment has caused tensions between neighbors. Zach Nessel, a recent Michigan State graduate who has been knocking on doors with Moss’ campaign, described a “big sign war” — three Jeremy Moss yard signs have been stolen from his front lawn over the past several weeks. 

A third candidate, Aisha Farooqi, is also outspoken in her opposition to AIPAC. She said in a recent interview that she opposed AIPAC “from the very beginning, before it was even popular [to do so]”. She received the endorsement of Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, a political group affiliated with the X account “Track AIPAC,” which goes after politicians who have received money from pro-Israel groups or aligned donors. Farooqi has also been endorsed by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the most vocal critics of Israel in Congress.

“The problem in the Middle East is decades of western aggression, sanctions, and the US support of Israel to do as it pleases in the region,” Farooqi wrote in a post on X in June. Her profile’s bio has two slogans: “No AIPAC” and “Abolish ICE.” She supports ending all aid to Israel and “holding those responsible for war crimes accountable,” according to her campaign website. A fourth candidate who trails in fundraising, John Paul Torres, has pledged to stand against “the genocide against the Palestinian people.”  

Any whiff of antisemitism in the race is particularly troubling to Jewish voters in a district that includes Temple Israel, the Reform synagogue that experienced a violent antisemitic attack in March. No one was killed besides the assailant, a Hezbollah sympathizer whose brother was a commander in the terror group in Lebanon, according to the IDF.  

“I think there was a very big moment in this district when Temple Israel was attacked, and it very clearly demonstrated where the anti-Israel rhetoric does produce antisemitic hate and harm in our community,” said Moss. “It has been very challenging to grapple with all of the goings-on in the Middle East and ensure we have safety and security for our Jewish community here at home in this district.”