Black and Jewish Americans share a long, complex relationship. Black people and Jewish people are tied in their burden as targets of abiding oppression and bigotry and, for decades, co-warriors in the fight for civil rights and social justice.
Now comes a new chapter in that singular, historic relationship, emerging in the battle for Chicago-area congressional districts in the March 17 Illinois primary. Pro-Israeli interests have jumped into several heated contests in historically Black districts, sparking controversy and blowback.
Will that influence be fruitful or hurtful?
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a bipartisan lobbying group with “more than 6 million grassroots members who want to strengthen and expand the U.S.-Israel relationship,” according to its website.
The committee is well known for showering money to influence Jewish politicians and voters. In this election cycle, the equation is being altered as the campaigns of Black politicians are being flooded with major cash from AIPAC donors and affiliates, radically shifting the equilibrium of some races.
The group rakes in millions in funds to support political candidates that support a strong pro-Israel alliance. Its influence is being felt in key races.
AIPAC has close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government, making it a hot potato in the ecosystem of Jewish activism in the United States. Critics charge it is a potent weapon in Israel’s bloody war in Gaza.
An AIPAC affiliate, the United Democracy Project, is shoveling big cash into several Democratic congressional primaries in Illinois, including in the 8th and 9th districts in the western suburbs and northern suburbs of Chicago.
AIPAC donors are also backing African American candidates in fierce battles for two open seats in the 2nd and 7th congressional districts.
In the 7th, Chicago city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin is up against 12 other candidates to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis.
The United Democracy Project “is spending $458,865 on TV and cable ads today through Feb. 16,” Politico Illinois Playbook reported on Feb. 10. “And the group could spend that much for weeks going forward.”
Clearly, the pro-Israel group aims to influence this historically Black district, which includes parts of Chicago’s downtown, Near South and West sides, and the western suburbs.
The 7th District, once predominantly African American, has seen demographic change. Now 39% Black, it has been represented by Davis and previously Cardiss Collins, both African American, for more than 50 years. The project cannot coordinate with Conyears-Ervin’s campaign. As Politico notes, AIPAC doesn’t get directly involved in campaigns because it’s officially nonpartisan.
Conyears-Ervin’s spokesperson told Politico, “Melissa isn’t focused on who’s running ads.”
One of her opponents, Anthony Driver Jr., a community and union organizer, blasted the connection to AIPAC as pay-to-play politics.
In the 2nd Congressional District, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller is leading a crowd of 10 aiming to take the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running for the U.S. Senate. The 2nd District stretches from Chicago’s South Side to its southern exurbs.
Miller raised more than $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, according to a Hyde Park Herald analysis of federal campaign finance filings, success “fueled largely by an influx of out-of-state donations from contributors with a history of giving to the nation’s largest pro-Israel lobbying organization.”
The Herald found that “more than 500 donors who live outside Illinois contributed roughly $892,000 to Miller’s campaign during that quarter, accounting for 87% of her fundraising.” At least 258 of Miller’s individual donors had previously given to AIPAC or its affiliate, United Democracy Project. That added up to more than $470,000, more than a third of her total.
Miller’s campaign has denied being endorsed by or soliciting money from the group and maintains that the AIPAC-related bucks will not influence her policy positions.
In 2023, the 2nd District was about 46% Black, according to U.S. census estimates. Traditionally, Black candidates in heavily African American districts have a harder time raising political donations than their white counterparts. So, wealthy outside donors and super PACs can have an outsize influence on the outcome.
Critics of AIPAC call it outsider influence. The goal of AIPAC and its affiliates “is to elect members of Congress who will vote to send unlimited U.S. tax dollars to fund Benjamin Netanyahu’s war machine,” said Illinois state Sen. Robert Peters, an African American, Jewish and progressive candidate in the 2nd Congressional District.
Will Black voters care about AIPAC’s role in these races? The issue of Israel support, I suspect, won’t resonate in districts that are grappling with far more salient concerns, such as the dire need for economic development, adequate health care and affordable housing, for starters.
Yet hundreds of thousands of dollars in dark money can buy a powerful perch in Congress, regardless of those concerns, and add a deep fracture to the historic Black-Jewish alliance.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Wednesday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
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