The latest round of fundraising reports filed by leading pro-Israel advocacy groups suggests that they are in strong financial shape as the midterms come into view, even as some of the top pro-Israel candidates have underperformed with their fundraising in key races.

United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, raised $13.5 million in the first half of 2025, according to its mid-year fundraising report filed late last week, with nearly $39 million on hand at the end of June.

Those figures were far higher than the $8.8 million in contributions the group had pulled in during the same six-month period in 2023, at the beginning of the last election cycle. The group, which ultimately raised much more in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, had $9 million on hand at the time, federal filings show.

Among the top donors to UDP this cycle are Blair Frank, a portfolio manager at Capital Group, who gave $1.5 million — marking the only seven-figure contribution. The Kraft Group, a holding company led by Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, gave $500,000 — as did four other donors including Sanford Grossman, Michael Leffell, David Messer and Andrew Schwartzberg, according to the new filings.

Meanwhile, AIPAC’s bipartisan political action committee, which has yet to issue endorsements in a range of key House and Senate races, raised $2.6 million last month — and was sitting on nearly $14 million at the end of June, its latest monthly filing shows. By contrast, the group had raked in around $1.5 million in June 2023, with nearly $1.4 million on hand.

The fundraising indicates that pro-Israel donors are being driven to contribute amid a new shift in which a growing number of Democratic lawmakers, as well as some Republicans, have endorsed blocking aid to Israel over its handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That trend has coincided with the Democratic nomination of Zohran Mamdani, an avowed critic of Israel, in New York City’s mayoral race, opening up an ongoing debate over the party’s future direction. 

Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, said in a statement that “grassroots pro-Israel activists are deeply engaged in the political process given the critical importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship as the Jewish state battles aggression from Iran and its terrorist proxies.”

“As the 2026 midterm elections approach, that increased involvement will ensure that the voice of the pro-Israel community will be heard,” Wittmann told Jewish Insider on Monday. 

On the Democratic, rather than bipartisan, side of the equation, DMIF PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, reported raising $2.1 million so far this year, with $2.6 million on hand heading into July. 

While the group’s latest cash haul was buoyed largely by a single $2 million contribution from Deborah Simon, a pro-Israel donor in Indiana, its new filing indicates a healthier financial situation than its last mid-year report in 2023, when DMFI PAC pulled in just over $700,000 during the first six months of that year, with only a small amount more in reserve funds.

DMFI PAC, which worked alongside UDP to unseat two Squad-aligned Israel critics in House races last cycle, has not yet announced endorsements in next year’s primaries.

Despite relatively robust fundraising for the two groups, such donor enthusiasm has yet to translate to some key races in which pro-Israel candidates are lagging behind their opponents. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), a longtime ally of AIPAC who is running for Senate, was recently outraised by state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul el-Sayed, an outspoken critic of Israel. And in an open-seat House primary in the Chicago suburbs, Laura Fine, a state senator who is touting her pro-Israel positions, fell well behind her two left-leaning rivals.

One prominent pro-Israel activist who is close to AIPAC, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address what he called an “undeniable shift” in the Democratic Party on Israel, said he was unfazed by such fundraising at this stage of the primary cycle — noting that Stevens in particular has a “reservoir of support that is out there waiting” within the Jewish and pro-Israel communities.

“We are committed to the cause which we think is deeply in America’s interest, and we’re not going to give up,” he told JI. “People like us are just going to get more animated by this, not scared off.”

A new super PAC launched by aides to President Donald Trump aimed at unseating Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) placed its first ads in a $1 million blitz in Kentucky targeting the isolationist lawmaker for his refusal to support key parts of the president’s agenda, Jewish Insider has learned.

The Kentucky MAGA PAC was launched earlier this month by Chris LaCivita, who co-managed Trump’s 2024 campaign, and Tony Fabrizio, the president’s pollster, with the goal of defeating Massie in the GOP primary for his House seat next May. LaCivita told Axios at the time that the PAC would spend “whatever it takes” to defeat the Kentucky lawmaker.

Trump and those in his orbit have been discussing the idea of primarying Massie for months, as the congressman criticized the president’s reconciliation package and his approach to foreign policy. Most recently, Massie decried Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of Israel’s military operation to destroy the regime’s nuclear program as unconstitutional. 

The ad, which opens with the question, “What happened to Thomas Massie?” criticizes Massie for voting against Trump-backed legislation on sex reassignment surgery for minors, tax cuts, border security funding and his opposition to the Iran strikes.

“After Trump obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Massie sided with Democrats and the Ayatollah,” the ad’s narrator intones. “Let’s fire Thomas Massie.”

The ad superimposes Massie’s face and his tweet calling the strikes unconstitutional next to pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Massie is among the most outspoken Republican critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the House, and consistently opposes U.S. aid to Israel and nearly all measures to combat antisemitism.

He’s also been repeatedly condemned by colleagues on both sides of the aisle and Jewish leaders in his home state for antisemitism, often over comments about AIPAC and other pro-Israel advocates.

Thus far, Massie does not appear to have any serious primary challengers. 

“Massie sided with Democrats and the Ayatollah.”

President Trump’s anti-Thomas Massie SuperPAC is out with its first ad against the Kentucky Congressman. pic.twitter.com/OwpfP3P6ql

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 26, 2025

The Republican Jewish Coalition said earlier this year it would join Trump in backing a primary challenger to Massie. “The RJC is proud to join with President Trump to defeat Massie,” the group’s spokesperson, Sam Markstein, said Thursday, when asked about the new PAC.

Past primary attempts against Massie — a Trump antagonist dating back to his first term — have fallen short.

Though it did not make a direct attempt to challenge him in his primary race last year, where he faced no serious competition, the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC spent several hundred thousand dollars on ads criticizing Massie.

Massie was seen as a potential Senate candidate to run for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) seat, but hasn’t yet announced any plans to run. He’s also been floated as a Kentucky gubernatorial candidate.

The RJC pledged it would spend an “unlimited” budget to oppose a potential Massie Senate run. 

A new super PAC funded by donors involved in Jewish and pro-Israel causes is targeting Zohran Mamdani as he continues to surge in the final days of New York City’s mayoral primary, tying the far-left Queens state assemblyman to a range of recent antisemitic incidents.

In a 30-second digital ad released by Sensible City, the super PAC takes aim at Mamdani, a democratic socialist polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for supporting efforts to defund the police amid a rise in anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic violence fueled by Israel’s war in Gaza.

“It doesn’t stop,” the ad’s narrator intones over images of anti-Israel protests as well as antisemitic attacks, notably highlighting the alleged shooter of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington last month. “Day after day, streets blocked, demonstrations, some calling for killing, destruction — it’s not safe. Institution walls defaced with symbols to remind us of what can happen only because of who we are. The haters mean every word they utter. What can we do?”

“Zohran Mamdani wants to defund the police,” the narrator adds. “We need a mayor who puts more cops on the street. What’s your June 24 Democratic primary choice?”

The ad does not mention any other candidates in the Democratic primary, though at least one of the super PAC’s board members and one of the super PAC’s donors have contributed to Cuomo, who has called antisemitism “the most important issue” in the race while touting his staunch support for Israel. He has also criticized Mamdani over his past calls to defund the police.

Mamdani’s hostility toward Israel, whose existence as a Jewish state he has refused to recognize during the campaign, has long raised alarms among Jewish leaders, particularly as polling has suggested that he is gaining on Cuomo with under two weeks until the primary.

But the new ad from Sensible City, which began airing late last week, is one of only a small handful of paid efforts to draw scrutiny to Mamdani’s record of anti-Israel activism, one of several vulnerabilities in his insurgent bid for mayor. 

Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund executive seeking the Democratic nomination, has also run ads hitting Mamdani ‘s rhetoric on Israel. “The socialists are at the gate and Zohran Mamdani is leading the pack,” a Tilson ad stated earlier this month. “If they take over New York City, this is what they said they’ll do: Defund the police, consequences for genocidal Zionist imperialism.”

Mamdani’s campaign has dismissed both efforts as “desperate,” while calling the new ad from Sensible City “disgusting” and “slanderous.” 

It remains to be seen if the new super PAC will further engage in the primary, after spending just over $100,000 on its digital ad — a relatively small sum in a race that has drawn millions from outside groups. 

The super PAC has raised only $212,000 from seven donors, the latest filings show, including Rob Stavis, a partner at the venture capital firm Bessemer and a vice chair of the Anti-Defamation League’s board of directors, and Modi Wiczyk, a film producer and a board member at the Israel Policy Forum.

Stavis, who contributed $100,000, the single largest amount, declined to comment on the race, but a person familiar with his thinking said he has been personally troubled by Mamdani’s campaign.

The super PAC’s “mission,” it states on its website, “is to advocate for issues and policies focused on supporting and advancing public safety, combating antisemitism and promoting fiscal responsibility.”

“Our mission is more than a statement — it’s a standard,” the website adds. “Everything we do reflects our belief that New Yorkers deserve safe communities, responsible governance, and leaders who stand up to hate. Sensible City exists to hold that line.”

Representatives for the group listed on its website as well as in filings did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The group’s chairman, Daniel Horwitz, a partner at Tannenbaum Helpern in New York City, gave $500 to Cuomo’s campaign in March, according to filings.

A super PAC launched by allies of Cuomo, Fix the City, has raised more than $12 million, and recently began running attack ads against Mamdani.