J Street PAC Doles Out Money to Midterm Candidates
J Street’s political action committee has raised $650,000 so far for this year’s elections and is backing a slate of 61 candidates, including 10 Jewish lawmakers.
A statement Thursday from the dovish pro-Israel lobby’s PAC said that it expected to raise $1 million this cycle.
In its first election cycle, in 2008, J Street backed 41 candidates and raised $578,000, making it the third most successful pro-Israel PAC.
Among Jewish candidates, J Street added to its endorsees two longstanding lawmakers: Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Middle East subcommittee, and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.).
It lost endorsee Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). A handful of candidates have rejected J Street support after encountering hostility to its views among constituents.
J Street backs an assertive U.S. role in peacemaking that includes pressure on Israelis and Arabs.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
