AIPAC endorsements are over. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee told members on Wednesday that it will no longer endorse candidates, give money directly to campaigns through its political action committee, or earmark donations for specific candidates.
The group is not leaving politics. Its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, will keep operating, and AIPAC says it will now focus on getting its members to write checks to candidates on their own.
“Endorsements, direct PAC contributions, and earmarking will no longer be part of our approach so we can expand individual giving and utilize new tools to help our friends win,” the letter to members said. Jewish Insider first reported the email.
Those three terms describe three different ways money moves. A political action committee, or PAC, collects money and gives it straight to candidates, with legal limits on how much it can give. Earmarking is when a group collects donations from its members and routes them to a named candidate, so the group gets credit for money that technically came from individuals. A super PAC works differently. It can raise and spend unlimited amounts, but it cannot hand that money to a candidate or coordinate with a campaign. It pays for its own ads, mailers and outreach supporting or attacking candidates instead.
What AIPAC is giving up are the tools that put its name directly next to a candidate’s. What it is keeping is the tool that spends the most.
AIPAC’s PAC gave nearly $25 million to candidates and political committees in 2026 through September, according to NPR. The United Democracy Project gave another $13 million and spent $53.5 million on independent expenditures, which is the legal term for ads and campaigns a super PAC runs on its own. A CNBC analysis of federal filings puts the combined total from both groups at about $105.1 million this cycle. Federal Election Commission data shows AIPAC’s PAC was the largest PAC contributor in the country in 2025, giving $26.8 million.
“Our mission and strategy remain the same,” AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
For most of its history, AIPAC did not endorse candidates or run a PAC at all. It lobbied lawmakers and let its members donate on their own. That changed in late 2021, when the group launched AIPAC PAC and the United Democracy Project ahead of the 2022 midterms. Three election cycles later, the end of AIPAC endorsements takes the group back toward the model it used for decades, with a super PAC added on top.
The letter called this election cycle challenging. AIPAC money became a campaign issue in Democratic primaries across the country, with challengers attacking incumbents for taking it and some candidates publicly swearing it off. Seth Moulton, the Massachusetts congressman running for Senate, pledged in 2025 to return all AIPAC donations and refuse future ones. NPR reported that candidates backed by the group faced opposition from both the left and the right as public opinion on the relationship between the United States and Israel shifted.
The strain showed up inside the group’s own roster this summer. In July, AIPAC quietly removed donation buttons for 18 House Democrats it had endorsed after they voted for an amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie to cut $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel. Democrats who backed that amendment included House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. AIPAC did not formally pull those endorsements at the time, but the lawmakers stopped receiving financial support through its portal.
AIPAC is framing the change as a strategy shift, not a retreat. The letter claims the group helped 290 candidates it backed win their races this cycle and kept 29 people it called “detractors” from winning.
Here is what changes on the ground. AIPAC’s website will no longer carry a list of endorsed candidates with donation links, according to JNS. The group will still tell members which candidates it favors and push them to give directly. Since many lawmakers have sworn off PAC money from all sources, JNS reported that AIPAC will send its remaining PAC funds to other political organizations rather than to candidates.
Jewish Insider noted one more effect of the new approach: AIPAC supporters can keep funding candidates who have publicly said they will not take money from AIPAC. Without endorsements and earmarking, a candidate can truthfully say AIPAC did not give them a dime while AIPAC members fund their campaign and the United Democracy Project spends on their behalf.
