The AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project is launching its first negative ad in the Michigan Senate race, targeting Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, just over a month before the state’s primary elections.

According to FEC filings, the group spent more than $2 million in the initial ad buy targeting El-Sayed.

The 30-second ad highlights El-Sayed’s “long history of disrespecting women,” including criticisms of former First Lady Michelle Obama and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The ad also highlights a discrimination lawsuit — in which El-Sayed was not a defendant — that claimed he told a woman he wouldn’t work with anyone over the age of 40, as well as allegations that he attempted to pay an employee to keep silent about his disparaging comments about women.

Critics have recently highlighted El-Sayed’s disparaging comments about his opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI); El-Sayed, in a recent interview, described her as a “suit with a large AIPAC account” who can’t “string together two coherent sentences.”

UDP has spent more than $10 million in the race boosting Stevens.

El-Sayed picked up a high-profile endorsement on Thursday from leading progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Stevens was endorsed this week by the Detroit News.

Also Thursday, UDP made $400,000 in advertising reservations to support Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) as he faces a comeback primary challenge from former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), whom UDP helped Bell defeat in 2024.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) political spokesperson denied on Wednesday allegations that Johnson was involved in boosting Maureen Galindo, an antisemitic Democratic candidate in Texas’ 35th Congressional District.

The spokesperson said that Johnson had no involvement in the district’s Democratic primary, which Galindo lost on Tuesday.

The statement came after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted Johnson in response to an article in the newsletter Popular Information that linked Lead Left PAC, the shadowy super PAC that supported Galindo, to a prominent GOP compliance consulting firm. One of the founders of that group, Caleb Crosby, has served as the treasurer for the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund, the primary super PAC arms of House and Senate leadership.

The origins of the pro-Galindo effort have been heavily shrouded in mystery, but national Republicans would have had an interest in boosting the less-electable Galindo in a swing-district race that Democrats hope to win. It’s unclear the extent to which Crosby or his firm, which advertises compliance reporting, budgetary and fiscal management and other similar services, would have been involved in any strategic decision-making for the Lead Left PAC.

“Mike Johnson’s political operation boosted a dangerous antisemite in the TX-35 Democratic primary runoff in an attempt to gain political power,” DCCC spokesperson Courtney Rice said in a statement. “This should shock the core of the Republican Party, and every single Republican needs to stand and speak out against this cynical political move.”

CLF and Crosby’s consulting firm, Crosby Ottenhoff Group, did not respond to a request for comment.

Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, said at an event with Jewish supporters last week that he struggles to answer questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.

At his “Jews for Abdul” event last week in Pontiac, Mich., a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, El-Sayed, in response to a question from an audience member about him sidestepping inquiries about Israel’s right to exist, said, “I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,’ which, to me, forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means.”

SCOOP | Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, said at an event with Jewish supporters last week that he struggles to answer questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.

“I often struggle with the… pic.twitter.com/ugjbXgxUvr

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 27, 2026

El-Sayed continued: “I need folks who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”

He accused Israel of “bypassing” the issue of Palestinian rights and maintaining a Jewish majority in Israel by implementing apartheid in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, and said that the question of Israel’s right to exist overlooks “the rights of people who’ve been displaced by Israeli action” dating back to 1948.

He said that U.S. support is “funding leadership” in Israel that is opposed to a two-state solution while Palestinians do not have a voice in that conversation, and said “it’s not actually our job to decide what the peace looks like there.” 

“[Israel] exists as it stands, but nobody ever asked me about the right of Palestine to exist, because it doesn’t exist. And so I just push back on the characterization here,” El-Sayed said. 

MORE EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Abdul El-Sayed says “I need folks who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”

Read more:… pic.twitter.com/8kaWUqwYCK

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 27, 2026

El-Sayed’s candidacy, positions and affiliations — particularly his campaigning with streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly shared antisemitic sentiments and support for terrorism — has drawn concern from the sizable Jewish community in Michigan and nationally.

Photos from the event shared by El-Sayed’s campaign appear to show around a few dozen people in the audience, at least one of whom — who raised the question about Israel’s right to exist — said she was not Jewish.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced plans for a last-minute spending campaign against Maureen Galindo, an antisemitic Texas Democratic candidate who garnered condemnation this week for comments calling to imprison and castrate Zionists.

Texas’s primary is set for Tuesday and Galindo’s antisemitic activity is not new, but the race has garnered significant national attention in the past week after a local reporter shared her comments about internment camps for Zionists.

The DCCC is spending $34,000 on the ad spot, which describes her as “MAGA Maureen,” emphasizing an allegedly Republican-linked outside spending campaign to boost her campaign.

“Why is MAGA spending big on Maureen Galindo while lying about Johnny Garcia? Is it MAGA Maureen’s conspiracies? Her hateful words? Or that when we were fighting Trump, Galindo didn’t even vote,” the ad states.

Galindo came in first in the March primary by a narrow margin, beating former sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia, a moderate Democrat who has picked up endorsements and support across the party as leaders rush to condemn Galindo.

The DCCC ad boosts Garcia, in addition to attacking Galindo.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), in a video interview released Friday, also emphasized that Democrats were “supporting Johnny Garcia before this because we knew his opponent was vile and antisemitic and unworthy of anyone backing her.”

“She’s been roundly condemned by Democrats across the ideological spectrum, which is exactly the right thing to do, particularly in a moment where we know that Jewish Americans across the country are facing such a rough climate,” he continued.

He emphasized the GOP-linked efforts to boost Galindo and called on House Republicans to urge the super PAC backing her to stop doing 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.”

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for Senate in the state, has disavowed AIPAC and pledged not to take support from the group on the campaign trail.

But in late 2019, he attended an AIPAC event alongside a major donor to his campaign, according to a contemporaneous Instagram post about the event posted by an AIPAC supporter.

The post has been circulating online in recent days, driving discussion in progressive circles.

Since mounting his Senate bid, Talarico has vowed not to accept support from AIPAC or J Street, and has faced criticism from some in the Jewish community who believe he is singling out AIPAC in particular.

“I refuse to be complicit in the death and destruction in Gaza, and I will never use your tax dollars to support the killing in that part of the world, and it makes me sick to my stomach to see what’s happening,” Talarico said at an event last year. “I hope in this campaign here in Texas we can send a crystal-clear message to the rest of the country that we are done being complicit.”

Asked for comment on Talarico’s attendance at the AIPAC event, campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said, “James has been clear on his position on what is happening in Israel and Gaza. If anyone has questions on where James stands, they should look at his record, his extensive public comments, and the issues page on his website.”

Talarico has vowed to support efforts to ban some weapons sales to Israel and accused Israel of war crimes.

The same AIPAC supporter who shared the post with Talarico in 2019 was a major donor to his 2020 campaign; Talarico posted repeatedly on X about the donor offering to match up to $10,000 in donations to his campaign.

Talarico has also faced scrutiny on the campaign trail for accepting donations for his statehouse campaigns from a pro-gambling super PAC, Texas Sands PAC, funded by prominent pro-Israel GOP donor Miriam Adelson.

The Texas state representative is one a growing number of Democratic candidates who previously affiliated with or sought support from AIPAC but have since disavowed the group on the campaign trail amid increasing progressive hostility toward the pro-Israel organization, including Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Deborah Ross (D-NC), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), former New York Assemblyman Michael Blake and Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss.

Kinney Zalesne, a longtime Jewish community activist, is one of a slew of Democratic candidates mounting a bid to unseat the District of Columbia’s longtime nonvoting representative to Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

Holmes Norton, 88, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with mounting questions about her age and her continued capability to perform in her job, which have been fueled by conflicting statements from Holmes Norton and her own staff about whether she plans to seek reelection in 2026. Her muted response to the Trump administration’s efforts to exert control over the District has further stoked criticism.

Zalesne, 59, said she’s running for the seat because “America is in the greatest danger in my lifetime, and D.C. is on the front lines.”

She said she has a “lot of respect” for Holmes Norton and that the incumbent has done “a lot of very important things for the city and was an important player on the national level,” but that D.C. now faces “different” challenges and the “stakes are high.”

“It’s a new era, and we need a new, fresh voice who can carry on her same, relentless advocacy,” she continued.

Zalesne grew up in a Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia, learning to read Torah at age 16 and lead services at 25. She said she’s been doing both ever since, including leading Mincha services on Yom Kippur annually for 32 years — a fact she said would distinguish her from any other Jewish member of Congress.

She also served as a board member and board chair of D.C.’s Jewish day school, serves on the American Board of the National Library of Israel and advised two hostage family groups, as well as worked with a group of Israelis trying to convene a constitutional convention prior to the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

“My run for office is really motivated by my Jewish sensibility,” she said. “My whole career has been about expanding opportunity for people, and that, to me, has always felt like that’s always been a huge part of my Jewish identity, and so this run for Congress is really an extension of that.”

She said she sees parallels between the city of D.C. and the Jewish community: “At the moment, we’re both under attack. We’re both small but mighty groups of people. And we both have so much to contribute and an impressive capacity to lead, so long as we’re not mistreated. And at the moment, we’re both … nervous and we’re vulnerable. I’m fighting for D.C. with a spirit that I learned fighting for the Jewish community.”

Zalesne highlighted that Jewish representation in the House has dropped precipitously over the past two decades, a poor omen at a time when antisemitism is also rising.

“As the D.C. delegate, I will stand strong against antisemitism wherever I see it,” she said. “We see it on the far right, we see it on the far left. I will call it out anywhere I see it. … It’s a terrible trend in our country, and we need more Jews in public life, not fewer.”

Antisemitic violence, she noted, hit at the heart of D.C. earlier this year with the slaying of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum, and “it will be a priority for me to guard against early warning signs and explicit manifestations of antisemitism.”

Though the D.C. delegate does not have a vote on congressional legislation, Holmes Norton has nonetheless made her voice heard on foreign policy issues in other ways, supporting various efforts and policies critical of Israel.

“I am deeply committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, both because Israel is our strongest ally in the region, and because that strong relationship is in the United States’ national security interest,” Zalesne said. 

She said she supports President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and praised Trump’s efforts in bringing it to fruition, but said it will be a long process to rebuild Gaza and remove Hamas from power. “I’m committed to that progress for the dignity and safety and security of everyone in the region.”

The mother of three college students and one recent college graduate, Zalesne said that she is worried about the “profound antisemitism problem on many campuses.” But she added that she’s “not persuaded” that the Trump administration’s policies, such as suspending funding to campuses, “really had anything to do with antisemitism.” She said it appeared to be fueled more by an “animus toward liberal arts” and a desire to force colleges into submission.

She argued that the Republican Party has to confront antisemitism in its own ranks, and that a proper approach to antisemitism on campus would be more targeted, rather than mass defunding research programs at prestigious universities.

“Their approach was way too crude, way too overblown, not targeted, not strategic and leads one to believe that antisemitism was something of a pretext in their solution. … The solution was not actually designed or narrowly tailored toward that problem,” she said. “As is often the case with Trump, he identifies a real problem, but then the solution is so over-broad and ideological and mismatched to the problem that people end up saying, ‘Well, there never really was a problem,’ and that’s wrong.”

She said she’s also worried that the Trump administration’s approach is going to “backfire,” make campus antisemitism worse and exacerbate on-campus tensions.

Asked about recent shifts in Democratic policy on Israel, Zalesne said that the party “has some work to do internally to be able to be a big tent, but not so big that we include policies and positions that are either antisemitic or harmful to minorities in the United States or elsewhere.”

She said that she would not support efforts to block offensive weapons sales or transfers to Israel, suggesting that such moves might make Israelis and Americans less safe, but she said the U.S. should use its influence over the Israeli government “toward peace, security and dignity for everybody in the region.”

Zalesne said the U.S. should “continue to be a strong voice, a strong influence in the region, to support the incredibly important U.S.-Israel relationship, and always back and guarantee the safety and security of Israel, and to work toward a dignified and economically prosperous future for Palestinians.”

She also said she supported the Trump administration’s decision to carry out military strikes on Iran in June, adding that Israel was also right to launch attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“I don’t agree with Donald Trump on much, but I was grateful for that move,” she said. To prevent Iran from rebuilding, Zalesne said the U.S. needs “constant vigilance and determination to act as needed” in the future, and to convey to the world that the U.S. “won’t permit a nuclear Iran.”

In addition to her work in the Jewish community, Zalesne worked in the White House and the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, started a nonprofit in D.C’s Adams Morgan neighborhood to support local first-generation college students and served as a deputy national finance chair for the Democratic National Committee.

After the 2024 election, she said that she “realized [the state of the country is] getting worse, not better, and no one is coming to save us, and we have to be the leaders we wish we had, so I decided to step up myself,” Zalesne told JI.

Zalesne was recently endorsed by former DNC Chair Jamie Harrison.

The candidate said she envisions a “bigger” role for the D.C. delegate than it has had in the past.

On the Hill, she said she’ll focus on traditional issues like protecting D.C.’s budget — which was slashed by Congress earlier this year — and protecting D.C’s autonomy.

Zalesne said that she wants to expand the delegate’s role off the Hill as well. She wants to work to “get the message about D.C. out and bring resources in,” by communicating to the whole country “the truth about who we are and what great strength we bring to the nation.” She said she also wants to work to bring in leaders from national business and philanthropic communities to work in the district.

She also argued that she’s the only candidate in the race with both the local and national experience and relationships to “deliver for D.C. on Day 1.”

Zalesne’s campaign says she’s breaking district records with her fundraising efforts — she raised $436,000 as of the end of September, many multiples of the $51,000 that Holmes Norton raised. But she’ll also be facing down several well-known D.C. city leaders who have entered the race since the last filing period.

But internal polling by D.C. City Councilmember Robert White’s campaign last month found Zalesne near the bottom of the pack, with just 1% support.

Liz Crotty, one of eight Democratic candidates running for Manhattan district attorney, occupies something of a rarefied lane: She is the only avowed centrist in a field crowded with progressives who have pledged to reshape the office in dramatic fashion.

While some candidates brandish do-not-prosecute lists, Crotty argues that it is not in the job description to decide which crimes should be ignored. Where many of her opponents emphasize the need for increased police accountability, Crotty calls for more cops on the subways as well as a renewed focus on law and order. And while Crotty believes that “restorative justice” is in some cases a viable alternative to incarceration, she is not nearly as gung-ho about the concept as several others in the race.

“I thought that there was a real voice missing in this race as someone who’s a 21-year practitioner on both sides of the courtroom and really standing up for the good things that the DA’s office does,” Crotty, a former assistant district attorney who now practices criminal defense law, said in a recent interview with Jewish Insider. “I really saw a lack of a voice for the everyday, ordinary New Yorker who wants to ride the train and feel safe.”

Lest she be branded as a conservative in overwhelmingly blue Manhattan, Crotty, 50, was quick to make clear that she is “a lifelong liberal Democrat” and that she wears that designation as “a badge of honor,” while cheekily adding: “The only time I voted Republican was not for [New York City Mayor Bill] de Blasio, so that’s the kind of Democrat I am.” 

Whether Crotty prevails in the upcoming election will, in several respects, function as a barometer of voters’ priorities for the next district attorney, who is poised to lead one of the most high-profile prosecutors’ offices in the country. Last year’s widespread protests against systemic racism — many of them in Manhattan — sparked a nationwide reckoning over criminal justice reform at the same time that violent crime spiked across New York City.

The recent DA race in Los Angeles may function as something of an early test case for how Manhattanites will weigh such concerns. In November, George Gascón, the godfather of the so-called progressive prosecutor’s movement, unseated the incumbent Democrat, Jackie Lacey, after she was targeted by Black Lives Matter activists for her failure to prosecute police officers.

In the Manhattan race, however, candidates have no incumbent to compete against as Cyrus Vance, Jr., prepares to step down at the end of the year after more than a decade in office. Not that he has avoided criticism from many candidates in the race, thanks in part to his decision not to pursue investigations into powerful New York figures like Harvey Weinstein and former President Donald Trump’s children.

The June primary includes a diverse field of candidates, including former federal prosecutors Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Alvin Bragg, former district attorneys Diana Florence and Lucy Lang, former public defender Eliza Orlins, state Assemblyman Dan Quart and civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi. 

Crotty, for her part, isn’t eager to praise the outgoing DA. But even as her views are, in many respects, out of step with her opponents, she believes she is walking a path Manhattanites will appreciate. 

“A lot of people in this race are speaking to a national, progressive platform, and not a localized, ‘what is going on here in Manhattan’ platform,” she said. “All politics are local, and I think they should speak to the problems that we’re seeing in New York — especially, since COVID, crime has risen, and I think we have to really speak to it. Being honest about what we’re seeing and what’s going on is more important than a political point of view.”

A New York native, Crotty attended Fordham University School of Law and then went on to serve as an assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau, whose emphasis on prosecuting white-collar criminals she vows to revive. 

After six years, she left the office to work at Kreindler & Kreindler, an aviation law firm in New York, and then started her own boutique criminal law practice, Crotty Saland PC, with Jeremy Saland, a former fellow assistant district attorney.

“There is no candidate that has done what she has, both served as a Manhattan prosecutor and been in the trenches on the other side as a defense attorney in the courts,” Saland said of his partner in an interview with JI. “I know Liz as somebody who is not just prone to getting along nor is she prone to some gimmicky slogans about justice. She’s done it, she’ll do it and she’ll believe what is right not just based on her own gut but based on facts, based on realities.”

“All politics are local, and I think they should speak to the problems that we’re seeing in New York — especially, since COVID, crime has risen, and I think we have to really speak to it. Being honest about what we’re seeing and what’s going on is more important than a political point of view.”

Crotty takes a measured approach to many of the hot topics in the race. She rejects calls to defund the police, for instance, while pointing out that it also isn’t within the district attorney’s purview to implement such changes. “The police play a vital role in the running of New York City,” she said. “Now, can the police do a better job? Sure, who couldn’t?”

“Police need to be trained longer and better and paid more, and I think that that’s what we need to be working on,” she added. “They are a stakeholder in the criminal justice system because they make arrests and then we decide what — or not — to prosecute from there. But it starts with an arrest. So I’m not willing to give up on the idea that police can do better.”

As for whether she will seek fewer prosecutions on, for example, drug possession, as some candidates have promised, Crotty was consistent. 

“The legislature is the one who decides what laws there should be and should not be, and as a constituent, I’m very happy they legalized marijuana,” she said, adding her belief that misdemeanors shouldn’t always lead to a criminal record or jail time. “But I think you definitely have to hold people accountable.”

That view applies to hate crimes, which have recently seen an uptick in New York. Though Crotty sees an upside to restorative justice, which seeks a form of mediation between victim and offender, “part and parcel of restorative justice is the defendant understanding that they did something wrong,” Crotty told JI. 

“I think a lot of hate crimes, some of them do come from ignorance, and I think you have to look to education,” she said. “But I think you have to really say, ‘Listen, we’re going to hold people accountable, especially in hate crimes, and especially in antisemitism.’”

“It’s not like we can’t be fair, and it’s not that the district attorney’s office can’t do better. But I understand that public safety in every neighborhood should be the priority of the next DA.”

But above all, Crotty vowed to prosecute violent crime in Manhattan, an approach she says she wouldn’t necessarily have prioritized if she were running for the office a year or two ago. 

“The 2019 platform for district attorney is way different than the 2021 platform for district attorney because crime has shifted,” she said, “and I think we have to be responsive to that.”

She believes reducing crime will take a multi-faceted approach that goes beyond the DA’s jurisdiction. “What is the mayor’s next plan for homelessness, for mental health services?” she said. “These are the things that are going to drive whether or not people get arrested.”

Ultimately, Crotty is confident her message will resonate because of her status as the race’s only self-identifying moderate. “The everyday, average New Yorker wants safety, and I think that I’m the candidate who’s been talking about it from the beginning, and I’ve never wavered,” Crotty said. “It’s not like we can’t be fair, and it’s not that the district attorney’s office can’t do better. But I understand that public safety in every neighborhood should be the priority of the next DA.”

“I’m actually running to prosecute crimes.”