Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) drew comparisons between the Holocaust and the war in Gaza, the latter of which she described as a genocide, in a speech on the House floor on Thursday, explaining her decision to support a resolution with far-left lawmakers, supported by anti-Israel groups, accusing Israel of genocide.

Dexter was backed by AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC in her 2024 primary race against an opponent viewed as further left, and ran on a relatively standard Democratic platform when it came to Israel issues. But she has shifted dramatically to the far left on the issue in recent months, also throwing her support behind efforts to cut off offensive weapons transfers to the Jewish state.

The Oregon congresswoman began her speech by recounting a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the timing of which she described as “very intentional.”

“I went to reflect on the horrific history of dehumanization and ethnic cleansing that ultimately led the world to create a new term to describe such an unfathomable evil. That word is genocide,” Dexter said. “After the Holocaust, the international community made a commitment that such evil can never happen again to any people, anywhere. Never again, they said. That is why I recently signed on to a resolution recognizing Israel’s actions in Gaza led by the Netanyahu government as a genocide.”

Dexter said that she signed on “with a heavy heart” and “with the utmost respect for the Jewish people” but acknowledged that Jews in her district “may feel abandoned or deeply harmed by my action.” She professed her ongoing opposition to antisemitism and support for “our Jewish neighbors.”

“Many in this body have been reticent to clearly call out the mass suffering, the ethnic cleansing, the war crimes taking place in Gaza. I will not willingly continue to be part of that complicity,” Dexter continued. “As a United States representative, my job is to stand up against the power and our resources of this country being used in such ways.”

She said that “history has and will continue to judge this body, not just for what it did, but for what it failed to do. … I want my children to live in a country where leaders can be relied upon to lead with courage, empathy, and moral clarity. And I urge every Oregonian watching to hold me accountable in a shared unshakable belief in the sanctity of human life.”

Sara Bloomfield, the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, criticized Dexter’s comments.

“Exploiting the Holocaust to accuse Israel of genocide is unconscionable and adds further fuel to an already raging antisemitic fire,” Bloomfield said in a statement to Jewish Insider.

AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann said, “The claim of genocide by Israel is a mendacious attempt to distort facts, rewrite historyand a dangerous blood libel. 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.  To invoke the Holocaust against Israel is a grotesque moral abomination.”

Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC), two House Democrats who received significant backing from the AIPAC-aligned United Democracy Project super PAC in their primary races against far-left opponents, announced this week that they would support efforts to block the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.

They join a third UDP-supported Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who indicated his potential support for such a policy more than a year ago.

The latest moves highlight the growing anger among Democrats with Israel’s continued war operations in Gaza — and the limited efficacy in advocating for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship towards liberals at a time when public support for the Jewish state within the Democratic party is declining. 

Dexter, who represents a deep-blue Portland, Ore. district, benefitted from more than $2 million in UDP donations provided during her 2024 primary race to other PACs supporting Dexter and attacking her opponent, Susheela Jayapal. 

Dexter said in a statement this week that the U.S. “must halt the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel and ensure immediate, sufficient and sustained humanitarian aid into Gaza,” also stating that “Palestinians and Israelis alike have the right to security, safety, self-determination and peace. Netanyahu’s war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza shatter any path toward those aims.”

She added that “Netanyahu clearly believes U.S. support comes without conditions. Israel has the right to defend itself from attack, but it does not have the right to commit gross violations of human rights or obstruct humanitarian aid to innocent civilians. Netanyahu’s government is doing both and worse. … We must use all means necessary to stop Netanyahu’s government from perpetuating these crimes against humanity.”

Jayapal, the sister of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), supported conditions on U.S. aid to Israel during her campaign. Dexter, in an interview during her campaign in 2024, told Jewish Insider she would not support imposing additional conditions on U.S. aid to Israel that don’t apply to all U.S. allies.

Dexter said “Israel had the right to defend itself, they were obligated to defend itself” while also calling for a negotiated ceasefire and raising concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. She said she did not believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interested in peace.

Asked about her apparent turnaround on the issue, Dexter said in a statement to JI that she would apply a similar standard to any ally.

“It is clear to me that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in the way it has prosecuted this war,” Dexter said. “The withholding of offensive arms, in light of these violations, is a standard to which I would and will continue to hold any American ally. The safety, security, and peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike depend on Netanyahu’s government being held accountable.”

Dexter also voted earlier this year against sanctions on the International Criminal Court, the first major Israel-related vote for new members in the current Congress.

Foushee, whose Durham, N.C.-based district is among the most progressive in the state, was among the first beneficiaries of UDP assistance during her 2022 primary campaign. The group spent $2.1 million supporting her campaign against progressive Nida Allam and former “American Idol” finalist Clay Aiken. Allam had a record of anti-Israel activism even before her campaign for Congress.

Foushee this week announced she would sponsor legislation “to prevent the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.”

“A ceasefire and de-escalation are urgently needed to ensure the sufficient flow of aid into Gaza and protect innocent civilians at aid delivery sites from military attacks,” Foushee said on X. “We simply cannot continue to provide the Israeli government with weapons when they are not being used in accordance with international law to maximize the protection of civilians in Gaza.”

Foushee’s campaign said this week that she would not accept further support from AIPAC.

Her new stance on U.S. aid to Israel comes as the culmination of a series of more critical stances she’s taken since first being elected to office, though she maintained AIPAC’s endorsement in the 2024 cycle.

In June 2023, Foushee signed onto a letter opposing Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program, but subsequently told Jewish Insider she’d done so by mistake. As early as December 2023, Foushee signed onto a letter calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

She has voted against numerous measures since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel cracking down on Iran, the Houthis and the International Criminal Court. And she voted against several measures to combat antisemitism including the Antisemitism Awareness Act and a resolution describing the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic.

Even so, she traveled to Israel in March 2024 with an AIPAC-affiliated delegation and voted in favor of supplemental aid to Israel.

In December 2024, she signed onto a letter led by other lawmakers accusing Israel of failing to fulfill the conditions of U.S. arms sales policy and law, and co-led a resolution in June condemning the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Foushee’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked about Dexter and Foushee’s positions, AIPAC didn’t address them directly, but said that the U.S. should not abandon Israel.

“If American leaders desire to end the conflict, they should take concrete steps to pressure Hamas to free the hostages and surrender,” the group said in a statement. “This is not a moment to abandon an American ally that is battling Hamas terrorists who launched this war with the barbaric attack of October 7.”

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

Garcia — who was backed by around $500,000 in UDP spending in 2022 — has also taken a more critical stance since taking office. Though he ran as the more moderate Democrat in his campaign, Garcia has frequently aligned with the left since taking office.

He signed onto a letter in April 2024 calling for the U.S. to withhold offensive arms transfers from Israel if it “fails to sufficiently mitigate the harm to innocent civilians in Gaza … and if it fails to facilitate — or arbitrarily denies or restricts — the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

His office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he currently supports suspending offensive aid. He voted, after that letter, in favor of supplemental aid for Israel and traveled to Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation.

Garcia called for a ceasefire on Nov. 11, 2023, and announced last year he would boycott Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Like Foushee, he has opposed many of the measures the House has voted on in the past two years aimed at countering Iran and its proxies, and several of the antisemitism-related measures.

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.”