A new ad by Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) reelection campaign will hit his runoff primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, over his ties to far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, pointing to Carlson’s criticisms of President Donald Trump, while also honing in on his attacks against Trump’s support for Israel and the war in Iran.

The minute-long ad — a five-figure buy set to begin airing on digital platforms on Friday, Jewish Insider has learned — appears to be one of the first mentions of Carlson as a target in GOP primary campaigns.

The ad opens by highlighting Trump’s support for Israel and efforts to counter Iran, contrasting that with Carlson, whom the ad states is “attacking our president for keeping America and Israel safe,” including a clip of Carlson describing the Iran war as “vile, on every level.”

It highlights that Trump had attacked Carlson as a “low IQ person” and a “fool” before playing a clip of Paxton appearing on Carlson’s show, in which Carlson expresses his support for the attorney general. “Ken Paxton still accepts Tucker Carlson’s endorsement,” the ad intones.

“Ken Paxton is taking Carlson’s side over President Trump,” the ad claims. “President Trump and MAGA stand with Israel. Ken Paxton and Tucker Carlson stand for nothing.”

Paxton has, in fact, been strongly supportive of the war in Iran and of Israel and has not expressed similar views to Carlson on the subject.

The ad closes with what appears to be an AI-generated selfie depicting Carlson and Paxton, next to a running money counting machine — a reference to corruption scandals involving Paxton, which Cornyn has highlighted on the campaign trail.

“It’s time for the crook to renounce the fool,” the ad’s narrator states.

Recent public polling has found Paxton with a narrow lead over Cornyn in the runoff, even though he trailed Cornyn in the three-person GOP primary last month. While Trump was, at one point, expected to endorse a candidate for the runoff race to clear the field, he has not yet done so.

The pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel’s super PAC launched its first ad of the 2026 campaign, targeting frequent Democratic candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, accusing him of hypocrisy and of flip-flopping on his positions.

The ad, set to air on television, contrasts past comments by Campa-Najjar about whether he would work with President Donald Trump or support his impeachment with his current hostile stance toward the president — running now in a bluer district.

It also highlights past inconsistencies in his stance on abortion — he once opposed it in all cases, but later described himself as pro-choice.

“Ammar Campa-Najjar has been a DSA-backed candidate whose record of flip-flops on Trump, impeachment, and abortion makes clear he will say whatever it takes to get elected, and voters in CA-48 see right through it,” DMFI president Brian Romick said in a statement.

DMFI is backing San Diego City Council member Marnie von Wilpert for the open seat, which was redrawn to favor Democrats. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who currently represents the district, is retiring from Congress.

Campa-Najjar, who was born in California and raised in Gaza, is the son of a Palestinian Authority official. He has run unsuccessfully for Congress two times before, losing to Issa by eight points in 2020 and losing to former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) in 2018. 

He is the boyfriend of Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), who represents a nearby southern California district. 

Romick and DMFI argued that nominating Campa-Najjar would endanger Democrats’ chances of winning the seat. It’s making a similar case in two other GOP-held swing districts the group is hoping to help flip.

“A candidate who can’t hold a consistent position on the most basic issues isn’t just untrustworthy, he’s unelectable,” Romick continued. “DMFI PAC’s Majority Project is fighting to take back the House, and that means making sure seats like CA-48 are won by candidates with the credibility to actually deliver. Campa-Najjar is not that candidate.”

With one week to go until the hotly contested Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, a new, well-funded super PAC is spending big on an ad campaign against Kat Abughazaleh, a far-left social media influencer who has staked out strong anti-Israel stances.

The group, Chicago Progressive Partnership, has reportedly spent around $1 million since its campaign against Abughazaleh began last week. A new television ad appears designed to sow doubt about her progressive credentials, referencing her writings from high school, when she backed Marco Rubio, then a senator, in the 2016 presidential primary and expressed conservative views on Social Security.

Other ads from the group accused her of taking donations from billionaires, Republicans and Trump supporters, an issue that has become a major point of attack in the race, primarily targeting moderate state Sen. Laura Fine.

“Who is the real Kat Abughazaleh? We don’t really know,” one ad states.

Abughazaleh has largely brushed off the attacks in a pair of mocking YouTube videos.

“AIPAC is so scared I’m going to beat them next week, and they should be,” she said in one of the videos.

Recent reporting from the district suggests that Chicago Progressive Partnership is tied to Elect Chicago Women, another new super PAC rumored to be backed by Israel supporters, which has spent millions supporting Fine and attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, also an Israel critic.

All told, the focus on attacking Abughazaleh — who would likely be the most hostile of the three candidates toward Israel — suggests a shift in tactics from reportedly pro-Israel groups, which until this week have mainly focused on hitting Biss while boosting Fine.

A new public poll of the primary shows Biss narrowly leading Abughazaleh, 24-20%, with Fine lagging behind in third place with 14% support. The poll also showed Abughazaleh gaining support and Fine losing support over the last several weeks. 

Last month, the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC inadvertently helped boost the far-left Analilia Mejia in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District as it focused its spending against former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), and the new spending against Abughazaleh may be aimed at preventing a repeat of such an outcome.

Elect Chicago Women filed with the Federal Election Commission notice of its most recent pro-Fine expenditures on March 6, and its last anti-Biss expenditures on March 3. The group has spent more than $1 million opposing Biss.

Some in the area had warned that focusing attacks on Biss could replicate a similar outcome as in New Jersey, pushing progressive voters away from him and toward Abughazaleh, though the Elect Chicago Women spending initially focused on boosting Fine, something UDP never did for its favored candidate in New Jersey.

Abughazaleh herself has attributed the influx of spending against her to such concerns, saying in a YouTube video, “I think they’re realizing that they might get another NJ-11 here.”

Meanwhile, in other Chicago-area districts, anti-Israel groups are going on the offensive.

The Justice Democrats and IMEU Policy Project, an anti-Israel group that has been increasingly active politically this cycle, are spending at least $100,000 to attack former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District. Bean is a pro-Israel moderate, and favored to win the race.

And in Chicago’s 2nd District, County Commissioner Donna Miller is facing attacks from the Working Families Party in ad accusing Miller of taking “MAGA billionaires’ money,” citing the alleged pro-Israel outside spending in Chicago, and accusing her of collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The WFP ad offers support for state Sen. Robert Peters, highlighting his record of opposing ICE and his endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and others. The group has spent at least $100,000 on the ads.

So far, Elect Chicago Women has spent $3.8 million supporting Bean; Affordable Chicago Now, another group rumored to be backed by Israel supporters, has spent $3.3 million supporting Miller; and UDP has spent $3.3 million supporting Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin in the 7th Congressional District.

A host of other outside groups, including those affiliated with the AI and cryptocurrency industries, have also spent millions across the four open Chicago House races.

As the Democratic Party debates how to improve its brand and sharpen its messaging ahead of the midterm elections, one progressive strategist is emerging as an influential behind-the-scenes casting agent pushing a style of unvarnished left-wing populism, notably combined with aggressive criticism of Israel and its standing as a U.S. ally.

Morris Katz, an ad maker in his mid-20s widely seen as a political wunderkind on the far left, has been instrumental in helping to elevate outspoken detractors of Israel in a range of key congressional contests — serving as a sort of anti-Israel whisperer for candidates seeking to fine-tune their messaging about one of the most potent sources of Democratic division in the current election cycle.

Katz, who is Jewish and grew up in a wealthy neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, has attributed his jaundiced view of Israel to the pro-Israel group AIPAC, which he called “the main accelerator that radicalized me” in an interview with Haaretz last November. In 2022, he worked on the House campaign of Erica Smith in North Carolina, where she was defeated thanks in part to outside spending from AIPAC’s super PAC, an effort Katz characterized as “sinister and bad faith.”

“I started to see what was happening with clear eyes. My eyes were open to the realities of apartheid in Israel,” Katz told Haaretz, arguing AIPAC “poses the single biggest existential threat to democracy in America out of any group.”

Since then, Katz has advised, among others, the insurgent Senate campaign of Graham Platner, the scandal-plagued Maine Democrat whose masculine image, gravelly voice and status as a Marine veteran aptly embodies the sort of rough-hewn features that Katz insists are well suited to energize voter turnout — even for swing seats crucial to the party’s strategy to reclaim majorities in both chambers.

But Platner, who has drawn scrutiny in recent months for promoting extremist content online as well as a freshly covered tattoo on his chest whose Nazi symbolism he claims to have not been aware of, has otherwise gained prominence for his strident opposition to Israel, a marked contrast with rhetoric traditionally heard from candidates in battleground states. Platner, 41, has accused Israel of commiting genocide in Gaza, vowed to block U.S. arms sales to Israel and pledged to reject donations from AIPAC.

Earlier this week, Platner notched a high-profile endorsement from Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who called the Maine oyster farmer “the only candidate” capable of defeating Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), even as Platner faces Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, in the primary. For his part, Gallego, also a former Marine, stirred some controversy this week after suggesting the U.S. had only gone to war with Iran at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “So much for America First,” he wrote on social media, stoking accusations he invoked an antisemitic trope while referencing partial comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Gallego, who had previously demonstrated a broadly pro-Israel record during his time as a congressman, is seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028. He was elected to the Senate in 2024 with the help of Rebecca Katz, a progressive strategist who recently launched a new consulting firm, called Fight Agency, that also employs Morris Katz (no relation). 

The consultancy has signed on as clients several far-left candidates who have made Israel a central focus of their campaigns, including Platner; Abdul El-Sayed, running for Senate in Michigan; and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a close friend of Morris Katz. It is also working with one unexpected candidate, Tom Steyer, the billionaire businessman and former presidential contender now seeking the Democratic nomination in California’s crowded race for governor. 

While Steyer said at a recent forum that he is committed to deepening California’s partnership with Israel and fighting boycotts of the Jewish state, he also sat for a lengthy interview this week with the far-left streamer Hasan Piker, whose popularity has remained strong among progressives even as he has frequently voiced antisemitic views and pro-Hamas sentiments.

Fight Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Morris Katz rose to political fame last year as a top advisor to Mamdani, who drew some criticism for speaking with Piker — and whose disinterest in visiting Israel is a notable exception to every New York City mayor over the past 75 years, who all traveled to the Jewish state .

During the mayoral campaign, Katz also reportedly served as an unofficial liaison to Jewish leaders who were suspicious of Mamdani’s anti-Israel record — though one well-placed Jewish community activist familiar with such outreach said he did not interact with the strategist and was not aware of others who had.

His own views on Israel would have been unlikely to reassure Jewish leaders. Katz has called Netanyahu “the existential threat to Israel’s existence” and said AIPAC is “spending hundreds of millions of dollars defending a fascist in Israel,” among other things.

More recently, Katz has worked for Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat who is defending a heavily Jewish House seat that includes parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Lander, a critic of Israel, is echoing other left-wing primary candidates in seeking to highlight Goldman’s ties to AIPAC as a sign he is not aligned with Democratic sentiment on Middle East policy.

In addition to Lander, Katz is now advising Claire Valdez, an anti-Israel state assemblywoman who is competing in a hotly contested Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) in a safely blue district covering Brooklyn and Queens.

Meanwhile, he is also reportedly working to help consolidate progressive backing for Micah Lasher, a Jewish state assemblyman with a record of support for Israel, who is running in a crowded Democratic primary for the House seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in Manhattan. Lasher had endorsed Mamdani during the general election, in a move that sparked blowback from some Jewish leaders.

Until Mamdani, Katz’s most consequential work had included advising on the Senate campaigns of Dan Osborne, an independent from Nebraska who lost his race, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has disappointed his former progressive backers for promoting staunchly pro-Israel stances since taking office. Fetterman recently dismissed Platner as “the guy with the Nazi tattoo,” after the Maine candidate had said the senator should lose his seat for backing the war with Iran.

Not all of Katz’s clients have become stars of one sort or the other. Earlier this month, for instance, one of his clients, Nathan Sage, a scruffy Democrat who was competing for an open Senate seat in Iowa, announced that he was ending his campaign, citing a lack of fundraising.

Still, some of his better-known clients have gained momentum in their respective races, most notably including Platner, who has continued to maintain a commanding lead over Mills — in spite of controversies that have engulfed his campaign in the past weeks.

In a sharply worded social media post this week, Katz accused Republicans as well as Democrats of “lying about” Platner’s background “to uphold an oligarchy, and the military industrial complex it rests on.”

An outside group began an ad campaign in the Chicago area on Saturday attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a progressive congressional candidate in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.

The ad campaign by Elect Chicago Women — a super PAC rumored to be a vehicle for pro-Israel supporters which has been a leading backer of Biss’ opponent, state Sen. Laura Fine — accuses Biss of making “empty promises,” including voting to cut Medicaid despite promising to protect healthcare, running a super PAC and declaring his candidacy for Congress shortly after taking office as mayor despite pledging to serve a full term.

“Daniel Biss: always running for something, willing to say anything to get elected,” the ad concludes.

The ad closely mirrors messaging from Fine, who is the moderate, pro-Israel candidate in the race. To this point, Elect Chicago Women has only been running positive ads boosting Fine, as well as another moderate candidate in another open district.

The other top contender in the 9th District primary, alongside Biss and Fine, is far-left anti-Israel activist Kat Abughazaleh, who has taken an even more hostile view towards the Jewish state than Biss. While Biss supports the Block the Bombs Act and efforts to unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood, Abughazaleh has accused Israel of genocide.

Frank Calabrese, a Chicago-area political strategist, told Jewish Insider that the ad campaign runs the risk of pushing progressive voters away from Biss and towards Abughazaleh, rather than Fine — a concern that one activist in the local Jewish community expressed to JI as well earlier this year.

That dynamic occurred in this month’s special election primary in New Jersey, where spending by the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project attacking former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) pushed voters toward his further-left challenger Analilia Mejia, an outspoken critic of Israel.

Meanwhile, Biss is also facing online attacks from the far left for accepting donations from J Street supporters.

The United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, launched a $500,000 ad campaign on Monday supporting Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who is running in one of a series of hotly contested Chicago-area congressional primaries.

In the 7th Congressional District Democratic primary, Conyears-Ervin faces, among others, Kina Collins, a Justice Democrats-backed, anti-Israel progressive candidate who ran for the seat twice before. Conyears-Ervin herself is a repeat candidate, having run against incumbent Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), who is retiring in 2024. Conyears-Ervin maintained strong support for Israel during her previous campaign.

The ad highlights Conyears-Ervin’s background as the daughter of a single mother reliant on public assistance and supporting a sister with disabilities who also depends on federal medical assistance programs. It frames her as a committed fighter against President Donald Trump.

“When Donald Trump attacks everything you believe in, you never back down,” the ad states. “For Melissa Conyears-Ervin, lowering costs, protecting health care and stopping Donald Trump is personal.”

Conyears-Ervin received 21% of the Democratic primary vote to Davis’ 52% and Collins’ 19% in 2024. In this year’s primary, she faces real estate developer and Jewish United Fund board member Jason Friedman, state Rep. LaShawn Ford — who is Davis’ preferred successor, emergency physician Thomas Fisher and Anthony Driver, a former leader of the Chicago police oversight board and a local union leader.

Conyears-Ervin finished 2025 fourth in total fundraising, trailing Friedman, Fisher and Ford.

She was also recently endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, which has supported various anti-Israel initiatives since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Friedman, who is Jewish, has a record of support for and engagement with Israel through the JUF, including leading numerous JUF delegations to the Jewish state. He’s seen by some as an unconventional candidate for the historically Black-dominated district.

A pair of recently created super PACs began running ads last week backing moderate pro-Israel women in several other Chicago-area districts. Those groups are rumored to be supported by UDP or other pro-Israel backers, but the 7th District is the only one in which UDP is directly and publicly involved.

A major infusion of pro-Israel funding into attack ads on former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) has complicated Malinowski’s path to victory in the Thursday special election primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District — though political analysts and members of the local Jewish community still see Malinowski as the likely favorite and say the precise impact of the anti-Malinowski attacks remains to be seen.

Malinowski has been the target of over $2.3 million in ads funded by the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project, which have hit Malinowski for a 2019 vote for Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding and stock trading while in office. 

Though AIPAC hasn’t formally endorsed Tahesha Way or run any messaging supporting her, the group is widely believed to be backing the former lieutenant governor, who was endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel.

“There are several candidates in this race that are far more supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship than Tom Malinowski,” UDP spokesperson Patrick Dorton told Jewish Insider last month.

Most local observers agreed that Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who has deep institutional ties in New Jersey Democratic politics, is in the strongest position against Malinowski, but Way and progressive activist and Israel critic Analilia Mejia, who has mobilized a series of prominent national progressive endorsers, also have pathways to victory.

The AIPAC blitz against Malinowski has surprised some in the Jewish community who saw Malinowski as an ally during his time in office, especially as Mejia has been more strongly critical of the Jewish state than Malinowski. But others have noted that Malinowski has shifted left since leaving office in 2023, when he represented the neighboring 7th District, a shift that now includes expressing openness to conditions on U.S. aid to Israel.

One Jewish leader called AIPAC’s decision to intervene so strongly in the race a tactical mistake that could end up hurting pro-Israel candidates. The leader was also critical of AIPAC’s decision to back Way, rather than Gill, who has also cast himself as a supporter of Israel. 

The leader argued that AIPAC’s strategy had boosted Malinowski’s credibility with progressive voters, opened a window for Mejia and undermined Gill, whom the leader argued would otherwise be the most viable pro-Israel candidate. 

But others in the Jewish community harbor concerns about Gill related to his wife, a state assemblymember. Alixon Collazos-Gill has ties to and has attended various events hosted by anti-Israel groups.

Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said that Malinowski has clear advantages — he leads in fundraising, and has the strongest name recognition and experience in Congress. He also has a deluge of PAC spending against him. which indicates that opponents view him as having a strong shot — but “my gut tells me … that Brendan Gill has a shot if he can get out the vote in his neck of the woods, in Essex County,” Rasmussen said.

Dan Cassino, the executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, agreed that “Malinowski certainly has an advantage in name recognition,” but said the outside spending has been “bruising” to him.

Rasmussen called the UDP ads “one of the biggest factors in the race,” given the size of the spend, but it’s not clear, Rasmussen and Cassino agreed, how voters turned off from Malinowski by the UDP ad blitz will vote, and they may scatter in various directions.

Rasmussen noted that Gill has a higher profile than Way and might be more likely to attract defectors, emphasizing that UDP has not given any direction or push to voters toward its preferred candidate.

He also said that, among certain populations, AIPAC’s opposition could strengthen Malinowski’s standing.

“Any one of these four candidates could win. With a low-turnout election, a highly motivated group of voters can make the difference,” Rasmussen said. A surge in Essex County voters could push Gill over the top, while Way would benefit from higher turnout among Black voters and Mejia could benefit from higher turnout among progressives, he said.

“Turnout is looking to be higher than some of the low-end projections we were seeing, but there’s still not a clear sense of who, exactly, is going to be coming out to the polls,” Cassino said.

Cassino said that “it’s also possible that bringing down Malinowski’s numbers winds up helping Mejia, who’s done a reasonable job of consolidating progressive support,” he continued, while noting that her fundraising has been “anemic.”

Rasmussen added that Mejia hasn’t fully consolidated the progressive lane: she scored endorsements from national progressive leaders, but Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), the most influential in-state progressive figure, is backing Malinowski.

And, he added, it’s “entirely possible” with so many candidates in the race and a lack of consolidation that a wildcard candidate could come from behind and win with just 20% of the vote.

Cassino framed the race as a test of the continued power of Democratic county organizations in the state.

“There’s going to be a lot of analysis looking at the extent to which Gill and Malinowski benefit from those endorsements,” he said. “The bigger those effects, the more valuable the endorsements are going to be perceived to be, which is going to shape candidate behavior in elections coming up.”

A pair of well-financed groups, whose origin is currently unknown, is set to begin running ads boosting moderate pro-Israel candidates in a series of open House seats in Chicago, each of whom is facing off against vocal anti-Israel opponents.

The ads — being run by newly formed super PACs Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now — boost state Sen. Laura Fine, running in the 9th Congressional District, former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL), running in the 8th District and Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, running in the 2nd District.

The ad buys for the two groups add up to millions of dollars across the three races.

Given that the groups were just launched, FEC filing policies will not require them to disclose their donors until close to Election Day. But the ads, which do not focus on Israel policy, are widely rumored to be connected to the United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC.

UDP did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and AIPAC has not made formal endorsements in any of the races in question. 

Fine has established herself as a supporter of Israel during her campaign, and Bean had a pro-Israel record in office. Miller’s public record on the issue is less established.

A spokesperson for Evanston, Ill. Mayor Daniel Biss, running in the 9th, declared that ads were being run by “a right-wing dark money super PAC” and that Fine “is being propped up by Trump supporters, AIPAC donors, and right-wing super PACs.”

Biss has called for a ban on offensive weapons transfers to Israel and far-left influencer Kat Abughazaleh, another leading candidate in the  race, has taken even stronger anti-Israel positions.

State Sen. Robert Peters, a 2nd District candidate who also strongly condemned Israel during the war in Gaza, posted a video earlier this week accusing “AIPAC and Trump donors” of “pouring cash” into Miller’s campaign, warning that “AIPAC and Trump allies” are “trying to buy this seat.”

One of Bean’s leading challengers in the 8th is Junaid Ahmed, who supports an arms embargo and an end to all military aid to Israel.

In several progressive-minded districts across the country, UDP has utilized similar pop-up groups and not disclosed its involvement until after Election Day.

The pro-Fine ad praises her record in office on issues like health insurance and gun control, as well as points to her support for a ban on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago. It calls her “the fighter we need to stop Donald Trump.”

ICE has become a major issue in the race, with both Biss and Abughazaleh attending anti-ICE demonstrations. Abughazaleh is under indictment for allegedly conspiring to injure ICE officers during a protest.

The pro-Bean ad highlights her support for the Affordable Care Act in her previous service in Congress, even though she “knew it might cost her an election,” and includes a photo of her with former President Barack Obama. It frames her new run for Congress as a continued effort to protect healthcare access from GOP attacks.

The pro-Miller ad highlights her work with Planned Parenthood and her work to protect pregnant mothers and combat domestic violence on the Cook County Commission. It also frames her as a fighter against President Donald Trump.

All three moderates — Fine, Miller and Bean — solidified their places as leading contenders in their respective races this week by leading in fundraising in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Fine also released an internal poll this week showing herself and Biss  tied for the lead in her race, with Abughazaleh in third and other candidates trailing.

Bean is seen as the front-runner in her race, given her established record. Miller, in spite of her strong fundraising, could face headwinds running against former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), who has strong local and institutional support but struggled to raise money last quarter.

For New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Sunday’s Super Bowl is about more than his team’s 12th chance at the title. It’s also a national platform for his latest 30-second ad aimed at tackling antisemitism, with more than 100 millions viewers set to tune in. 

Titled “Sticky Note,” the commercial features a Jewish student who is bullied in the halls of his school. As he takes off his backpack, he sees a sticky note reading “dirty Jew” was placed on it. In a show of allyship, a classmate approaches the student and puts a blue square piece of paper over the note. “Do not listen to that,” he says.  

“I know how it feels,” the student, who is Black, tells his Jewish classmate. As the ad concludes, a statistic reads: “2 in 3 Jewish teens have experienced antisemitism.” 

The commercial is the third annual Super Bowl ad produced by The Blue Square Alliance against Hate — the nonprofit founded by Kraft, which rebranded in October from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Since its launch in 2023, the group has popularized blue square pins as a symbol in the fight against antisemitism. 

Last year’s ad sparked criticism from some Jewish activists for not focusing on — or even mentioning — antisemitism, as rapper Snoop Dogg and iconic quarterback Tom Brady exchanged deliberately vague insults. Kraft defended the ad in an interview with Jewish Insider at the time, saying, “The challenge is that we just can’t explain the complexity of Judaism or antisemitism in a 30-second ad. But what we can do is invite Americans into a conversation about something they do have experience with: hate.”  

This year’s ad takes a more direct approach. 

“For the third straight year, the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate is proud to show up on sports’ biggest stage and speak directly to more than 120 million Americans with an urgent message: stand up for each other and stand up to hate wherever you see it,” Kraft said in a statement. 

The commercial will also air during the Winter Olympics and is part of a $15 million campaign that additionally includes digital advertisements and billboards.  

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemned as antisemitic an ad running in New York’s suburban 17th Congressional District that targets him for his support for Israel and for receiving support from pro-Israel donors.

“This ad is a disgrace,” Lawler said in a statement. “This kind of politics has no place in the Hudson Valley. I am calling on every candidate running in NY-17 to publicly and unequivocally denounce this ad immediately. Silence is an endorsement.”

The advertisement, paid for by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, attacks Lawler for supporting U.S. aid to Israel, claiming that such aid is depriving Americans of government-funded benefits programs.

“Israelis enjoy universal healthcare, while Americans go bankrupt from medical bills,” the ad’s narrator states. “Lawler’s reward? Giant campaign donations from AIPAC and the pro-Netanyahu lobby.”

It concludes, over an image of Lawler standing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Who does Mike Lawler work for? It’s not you.”

Lawler said in his statement, “The IMEU attacks anyone who stands with Israel, opposes terrorism, refuses to bow to their radical agenda, and traffics antisemitic tropes.”

The 17th District, one of Democrats’ top targets in November, has a sizable Jewish population and many pro-Israel swing voters, which have been key to Lawler’s past victories.

“I disavow this ad and any outside meddling in our race here in NY-17,” Beth Davidson, one of the leading Democratic candidates in the race. 

“Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike can unite in opposition to Mike Lawler’s record of cutting healthcare, gutting food assistance and even cosponsoring legislation to allow Donald Trump to push his insane Greenland acquisition” Davidson continued. “We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric like this at a time when Jewish New Yorkers, my family included, already face a rise in antisemitism. This ad does nothing to make us safer or allow our community to heal. Let’s focus on what the Hudson Valley needs to thrive, which is housing, healthcare and economic opportunity.”

Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, likewise characterized the ad as antisemitic.

“Expressing foreign policy disagreements alone is not antisemitic,” Treyger said. “However, advancing a shameful and hateful trope of Jews siphoning public resources for their own benefit is classic antisemitism. Disgraceful.”

The AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC launched a $500,000 ad campaign this weekend targeting former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who is running in a special election for the seat formerly held by Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill.

The ads highlight Malinowski’s vote in favor of additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement years ago, while he was in office representing the neighboring district. The vote also received support from a majority of Democrats.

“There are several candidates in this race that are far more supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship than Tom Malinowski,” UDP spokesperson Patrick Dorton told Jewish Insider. Dorton also confirmed the size of the ad buy.

Its decision to aggressively single out Malinowski is unexpected given that he has not expressed the same sort of caustic anti-Israel views that many of the candidates the super PAC traditionally targets have espoused. Malinowski, a former State Department official, was a prominent voice on foreign policy matters during his time in Congress and maintained a pro-Israel record.

“The ad itself is obviously — and unforgivably — cynical and dishonest. The strategy behind it is inexplicable. If AIPAC’s definition of pro-Israel now excludes even someone like me, who passionately supports Israel but won’t commit to a blank check for anything [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] might want, there won’t be enough pro-Israel people left in America to sustain the relationship,” Malinowski said in a statement to JI. “I’m confident people will see through this. But if they were to get away with it here, they will do the same to many other Democrats who at some point voted for border funding.”

Various lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — who AIPAC supports also voted for the border funding package.

In a recent interview with JI, Malinowski described himself as pro-Israel and expressed support for the Trump administration’s Gaza peace plan and strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. But he also said he’s open to policies conditioning or restricting aid, and said the U.S. should act as “counterweight” to the Israeli far right. He added that U.S. aid shouldn’t be used to facilitate Israeli actions that the U.S. itself doesn’t support.

Multiple other candidates in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District have expressed more critical views of Israel, including Analilia Mejia, who leads a progressive advocacy group. Mejia suggested in a candidate forum last week that Arab Israelis do not enjoy the same level of citizenship as Jewish Israelis and indicated she would not support sending offensive weapons to Israel as a member of Congress.

She’s endorsed by a series of progressives critical of Israel including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Greg Casar (D-TX), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Chuy Garcia (D-IL), as well as the Working Families Party and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC.

Other candidates in the race include Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who expressed support for continued and unrestricted U.S. aid to Israel in a recent interview with JI; Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who voiced her support for the U.S.-Israel relationship in a recent candidate forum; and Jeff Grayzel, the deputy mayor of Morris Township whose path to victory relies upon the support of Jewish voters in the district.

Gill, backed by Gov. Phil Murphy, and Malinowski have generally been seen as the front-runners.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, is sparring with AIPAC on social media over ads the group ran criticizing his support for a House resolution describing the war in Gaza as a genocide.

“AIPAC just poured money into a series of ads in my district calling me a liar for speaking out about the truth in Gaza,” Khanna said in a video posted to X on Tuesday. “They’re asking you to disbelieve what you’ve seen on your own phone with your own eyes. AIPAC wants to weaken me electorally and prevent me from having a seat at the table in the leadership of our country.”

Khanna went on to link the ad campaign to a range of other issues unrelated to AIPAC, saying that he will not “cave to special interests” on health care, tech and artificial intelligence; bend to “the Epstein class, rich and powerful men who are totally disconnected from ordinary Americans and believe the rules don’t apply to them”; or accept PAC, lobbyist or corporate funding.

The ad in question, which ran on social media and digital platforms, proclaims in bold text: “Ro Khanna is lying to you.” It references his support for the Gaza genocide resolution, led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), stating, “Claims of genocide are a dangerous attempt to distort facts and rewrite history.” AIPAC is running identical ads against a series of far-left Democrats supporting the same resolution.

AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann said that Khanna is echoing antisemitic tropes.

“The war in Gaza has profoundly impacted millions of Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans, yet rather than helping build a better future of peace, Rep. Khanna is instead rewriting history and parroting a dangerous blood libel,” Wittmann said in a statement. “The only genocide in this war happened on October 7, when Hamas openly admitted it wanted to kill every Israeli man, woman, and child it could. Our ad simply informs his constituents about his support for legislation that is based on a lie, and it evidently got under his skin.”

In a post on X, AIPAC added, “The same ad is running featuring other cosponsors. You’re not that special.”

Wittmann did not say how much money AIPAC had spent on the ads. According to Meta’s ad library tool, the group spent between $900 and $999 running the ad on Facebook and Instagram.

Khanna has made attacks on AIPAC, and criticism of Israel more generally, a significant part of his legislative message in recent months, at times associating with extreme anti-Israel and antisemitic figures.