Sludge

A non-partisan, independent news outlet exposing the moneyed interests that control U.S. politics.

[Donald Shaw @donnydonny]

NEW: AIPAC gave $400,000 to a dark money group that spent millions in Republican congressional primaries and now faces a complaint for illegally concealing its donors.

The donation appears in AIPAC’s latest tax filing:

[Sludge @Sludge]

NEW: AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, paid Democratic firms Impact Research and GQR $53,300 on Oct. 13 for polling and research, according to a pre-general FEC filing released today, as UDP spends to defeat Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

[Sludge @Sludge]

Both firms have also been paid this cycle by the DSCC and the Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC. Democratic firms have collected more than $7 million from United Democracy Project and its ally DMFI since 2021. Read our report: https://t.co/gKOFgh0pR2

[Sludge @Sludge]

NEW: AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, paid Democratic firms Impact Research and GQR $53,300 on Oct. 13 for polling and research, according to a pre-general FEC filing released today, as UDP spends to defeat Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

[Sludge @Sludge]

AIPAC just made our job harder, but we’re not stopping.

Yesterday, AIPAC informed its members that it is ending its candidate endorsements and will no longer be earmarking donations through its PAC as it has since 2022.

It’s not hard to see why. AIPAC told its members that this cycle has been one of the most challenging it’s faced. Its money has become a liability, and a growing number of Democrats, including some reliably pro-Israel ones like Cory Booker, have said they won’t take it. Part of what drove that backlash is that the money was public: every AIPAC earmark showed up in FEC records, and we’ve been turning those records into lists of what AIPAC gave every member of Congress.

But AIPAC isn’t asking its members to stop giving. It’s asking them to give directly to the candidates its staff recommend, which means the donations will no longer be tagged with AIPAC’s name in public records. Its leaders also said it plans to “utilize new tools to help our friends win,” without saying what those tools will be. And its super PAC, United Democracy Project, will continue spending to defeat candidates it deems anti-Israel.

We’ve already seen how AIPAC works when it doesn’t want its name on something. We reported on the pro-choice super PAC in Massachusetts funded by a group whose biggest outside donor was AIPAC’s super PAC, the AIPAC-tied groups that put millions into Illinois primaries largely from undisclosed sources, and the dark money network with AIPAC ties that ran attack ads against Graham Platner in Maine. Tracking money that’s been routed to hide where it came from is a major focus of what we do.

AIPAC was the largest PAC contributor to federal candidates last cycle, and together with its super PAC it spent nearly $127 million on the 2024 elections. This year its super PAC spent more than $30 million on a single Democratic primary in Michigan, and for the second cycle in a row the group has surpassed $100 million in spending. All that money comes with an agenda: AIPAC lobbies Congress for billions of dollars a year in military aid to Israel, and a lot of its giving goes to lawmakers on the committees that decide that funding.

AIPAC spent decades staying out of direct campaign giving, then launched a PAC in late 2021. We covered its first donations in February 2022 and have published dozens of stories on AIPAC’s money since. With the earmarks gone, this work gets more complex. We’ll keep matching earmark donors against new campaign filings, tracing the vendors AIPAC’s super PAC uses, like the Democratic Party pollsters we reported on earlier this month, tracking the pop-up PACs it sets up to keep its name off ads, and watching for whatever “new tools” the group starts using.

That’s where we need your help. Sludge is a small nonprofit newsroom, and work like this, hours in FEC data for a single story, is paid for by readers who subscribe. If you’ve ever shared one of our AIPAC stories or looked up your own member of Congress on our lists, please subscribe now. It’s the most direct way to make sure we can keep following this money as AIPAC makes it harder to do so.

➡️https://t.co/auHFmId9KK

Thanks for reading, and for helping keep this going!

[David Moore @ppolitics]

New Dems (@NewDemCoalition) are grabbing corporate cash, and having staffers fly to meetings with companies like Amazon and Oracle, through fundraiser Helen Milby's network. Wonder who they'll be listening to next year.

https://t.co/63HmoE6kzw

[Sludge @Sludge]

NEW: Helen Milby raises money for House Democrats’ largest ideological bloc. She also runs a nonprofit bringing Big Tech executives into private meetings with congressional staff and advises a tech industry group seeking to shape the party’s AI agenda. https://t.co/qRvHFEXoOJ

[Sludge @Sludge]

AIPAC’s money isn’t going away, but it will get harder to see. We'll keep tracking it: matching AIPAC’s past earmarks against FEC reports, following UDP and its pass-throughs, and publishing what we find. Please follow and subscribe to support our work: https://t.co/ZeUlOzQwtb

[Sludge @Sludge]

AIPAC announced Wednesday it will shutter its PAC and shift to a less transparent way of steering money to Congress.

Its members will no longer route contributions through AIPAC PAC, which disclosed AIPAC as the conduit to the FEC, and are being urged to give directly instead.

[Sludge @Sludge]

AIPAC’s PAC and UDP had combined for more than$104M in 2026 election spending as of our August count. https://t.co/nuTLiyxnlj

[David Moore @ppolitics]

What's going to happen in the next House on AI regulation, tech platforms, data centers?

Through New Democrat fundraiser Helen Milby, large corporations have direct access to business-favoring Democrats.

Report on how she links Amazon etc. w/ lawmakers:

https://t.co/63HmoE6Sp4

[Sludge @Sludge]

The New Democrats’ top fundraiser runs a nonprofit that took congressional aides, including Hakeem Jeffries’ deputy chief of staff, to Anthropic, Waymo, and AWS. She also advises a tech group that wants to “shape the kind of Democrats who win in 2026.” https://t.co/qRvHFEWQZb

[Donald Shaw @donnydonny]

The New Democrat Coalition Action Fund, where Milby is treasurer, has endorsed 36 of the 46 candidates in the DCCC’s Red to Blue program. Its chair says he expects the bloc to swell next Congress.

Full story: https://t.co/l9VnFSWcr6

[Donald Shaw @donnydonny]

Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia, Google, and Meta are partners of GlobalWIN, a nonprofit that hosts trips and private dinners for congressional staff and executives.

It’s run by the treasurer and top paid fundraising adviser to the New Democrats Coalition.

[Sludge @Sludge]

NEW: Helen Milby raises money for House Democrats’ largest ideological bloc. She also runs a nonprofit bringing Big Tech executives into private meetings with congressional staff and advises a tech industry group seeking to shape the party’s AI agenda. https://t.co/qRvHFEXoOJ

[Sludge @Sludge]

Tech billionaire John Doerr pitched Chuck Schumer directly that stronger antitrust rules would chill the VC industry by scrutizining acquisitions. He set up a dark money group funneling $10 million to Schumer- and Democratic-aligned nonprofits.

https://t.co/dQWm11hxWO

[Sludge @Sludge]

NEW: John Doerr, the tech billionaire whose VC firm Kleiner Perkins is heavily invested in AI companies, set up a dark money nonprofit that has sent millions to Democratic Party dark money groups.

[Sludge @Sludge]

A new dark money nonprofit run by John Doerr of VC firm Kleiner Perkins funneled money to Democratic pass-throughs—and to conservative energy groups campaigning for permitting reform.

https://t.co/dQWm11i5Mm