Three figures linked to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and a Brooklyn political operative — have joined forces with a bevy of wealthy business leaders to pump millions into a new political action committee dedicated to battling AIPAC.

American Priorities PAC has raised $2,050,000 to date and spent a quarter of it so far boosting Democrat Nida Allam, a vocal detractor of Israel, in her bid to oust Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. Filings with the Federal Election Commission show another $67,000 has gone toward promoting the candidacy of the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, the pastor of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is running for her House seat as she seeks the Senate. 

It’s all part of a plan to spend a minimum of $10 million countering candidates who have received past support from AIPAC, as NBC News previously reported. 

The treasurer of the PAC is Mark Hanna, a Brooklyn activist who served alongside Mamdani on the 2017 City Council campaign of the Rev. Khader El-Yateem, an experience that the mayor has described as having “transformed” his life and political vision. 

Hanna, who serves as a district leader in the Brooklyn Democratic Party, would not directly answer questions about the PAC when reached by Jewish Insider. A spokesperson similarly refused to answer questions about American Priorities’ fundraising and decision-making practices, though they denied Mamdani was in any way involved. The spokesperson also forwarded a press release that said American Priorities operates in a “partner network” with various far-left organizations, including the advocacy arm of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a pro-Palestinian activist group. 

A senior political advisor for Mamdani did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

However, NBC cited “a source familiar with the group’s planning” who said that the group planned to intervene in support of New York Assemblymember Claire Valdez, Mamdani’s favored successor to Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). The NBC source also told the outlet the group would spend to support a challenger to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), and to back Analilia Mejia in New Jersey, among other as-yet unspecified candidates.

Federal Election Commission records show that $1.5 million of American Priorities’ money — nearly three-quarters of its total resources — came from two Silicon Valley executives who helped fund the New Yorkers for Lower Costs super PAC that helped boost Mamdani into the mayoralty. 

Those donors are Omer Hasan, who put up $1 million for American Priorities, and Tariq Afaq Ahmed, who gave half that much. The duo provided $250,000 and $25,000, respectively, to the pro-Mamdani PAC last year, and a photo with the mayor appears on Ahmed’s Instagram account.

Neither Hasan nor Ahmed responded to repeated requests for comment. Both are former executives and shareholders from the marketing platform firm Applovin, which the New York Post spotlighted during the mayoral race for its cybersecurity issues and a significant Chinese investment stake. The company is reportedly the subject of an ongoing Security and Exchange Commission investigation, though no one from the company has faced allegations of wrongdoing.

Amir Nathoo, founder of virtual education platform Outschool, — and husband of Kirsty Nathoo, partner at Y Combinator, which provided his company’s seed funding — donated $100,000 to the PAC. Nathoo’s LinkedIn shows he also sits on the board of the nonprofit Tech for Palestine, whose members have coordinated to push Wikipedia to read as more critical of Israel. 

Another $100,000 came from Talat Hasan, a California-based investor who previously founded semiconductor developer Sensys Instruments.

A Los Altos resident named Bothaina Salama supplied a further $100,000, even though she reported to FEC that she was “not employed.” But contribution records to a local candidate show she shares an address with Omar Tawakol, an adtech entrepreneur best known for selling his company BlueKai to Oracle for $400 million. 

Only three donations to American Priorities originated outside the California tech corridor. One was a $50,000 gift from Justice Democrats, the left-wing PAC that first elected members of the congressional “Squad” in 2018. Another originated with Gregory Brennan, who identified himself as working in “property management,” and provided an address to what appears to be a waterfront vacation home in Chester, Md. Public records indicate Brennan, who did not respond to requests for comment, runs Green Space Building & Design, a public contractor in New Jersey.

The final $100,000 came from Dallas-area real estate, tech and car dealership owner Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq. Mahrouq enjoys national reach through his firm Ikon Technologies, which provides GPS tracking tools for auto brokers. But he’s also a power player in his hometown of Arlington, Texas.

Meanwhile, the Mahrouq Enterprises International webpage also shows he is a shareholder in various resort developments in the U.S. and internationally, including at the Address Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey — part of the Emirati-controlled Emaara portfolio. 

A group of Democratic lawmakers is launching a political action committee to support candidates who have prioritized tackling antisemitism, alongside standing up against other forms of hate. 

Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) will be chairing the committee, called the Alliance Against Antisemitism PAC. The PAC filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission in October.

“We want to celebrate and lift up those leaders who are unapologetically going to fight back against hate in all of its forms, including antisemitism. Sometimes antisemitism gets lost,” Landsman told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “This is our effort to root it out on our side, and I think it’s going to have an enormous impact.”

The idea of a PAC focused solely on a candidate’s stance on antisemitism is new, and a contrast from political action committees devoted to advancing pro-Israel candidates.

“I think that an individual could have a wide variety of opinions about the conflict in Israel, for instance, and still be very effectively standing up against antisemitism,” said Friedman. “Also, by extension, someone who, let’s say, is very pro-Israel, is not necessarily taking a big stand against antisemitism.”

That doesn’t mean a candidate’s approach to Israel is irrelevant. Both Landsman and Friedman described the need to target instances when criticism of Israel crosses a line into antisemitism.

“I personally believe that denying that the Jewish people have or deserve a homeland — that can have antisemitic roots to it,” said Friedman. 

“I think there is some misunderstanding around what is and isn’t antisemitic, and what does lead to a growing misunderstanding of Jewish people and a growing anger towards Jewish people, and it’s really important for us to support those candidates that are clarifying all of this,” Landsman explained. “There has been a lot of demonizing and othering of Jews, particularly Jews who believe in Jewish self-determination and statehood. I think it’s really important that we clarify that for folks.” 

The lawmakers’ goal is to start making endorsements and spending early next year, before congressional primaries begin. Landsman and Friedman declined to share who the PAC is considering endorsing, whether it will support only incumbent candidates versus new candidates and if it would challenge an incumbent deemed insufficiently supportive of measures to combat antisemitism. 

Nor is there a scorecard the group is using to determine whether to support a candidate; there are not particular stances candidates need to have taken in order to earn the endorsement of the Alliance Against Antisemitism PAC.

“We have not talked about any kind of legislative litmus test,” said Friedman, though Landsman added that passing the long-stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act is a priority for the group. 

“That bill should have been passed a long time ago,” he said.

The PAC will only support Democratic candidates. The chairs are looking at candidates whose stance against antisemitism is coupled with action against other forms of hate. 

“It can’t just be the one issue, because, personally, the solution to this is to bring other marginalized groups into an understanding of what antisemitism is, and to be our allies on this,” said Friedman. “There are people who have stood up against antisemitism who have been absolutely hateful when it comes to the LGBT community. Those are not the kind of people we’re looking for.”

Landsman said that his party is adept at fighting hate, but that antisemitism does not always get included in the litany of biases Democrats want to root out. 

“Sometimes we, on this side of the aisle, stand up for everybody, but we’re not as clear-eyed about Jews and Jew hate, and that needs to end,” Landsman explained.

A spokesperson for Lieu did not respond to a request for comment.