Pro-Israel AIPAC offshoot spent $2.3M to help Shri Thanedar in Michigan primary

• A PAC linked to influential pro-Israel advocacy group spent $2.3 million on attack ads against Democratic congressional candidate Mary Waters
• Waters was the top challenger to U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar of Detroit. She had been backed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, among others.
• Thanedar won the primary, all but ensuring reelection in the heavily Democratic district

A fund connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a former Michigan Republican Party chair spent nearly $2.3 million attacking a top challenger to U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar in last month’s Democratic primary, according to a new federal disclosure. 

Thanedar handily defeated Detroit City Council member Mary Waters and Shakira Hawkins in the Aug. 6 primary, winning 54% of the vote compared to Waters’ 34%. The victory all but assured Thanedar’s reelection to represent the 13th Congressional District’s deep-blue swath of Wayne County.

But Thanedar had some late help: In the final weeks of the race, a super political action committee called Blue Wave Action formed and quickly spent nearly $2.3 million on television ads and mail advertisements attacking Waters, who had been backed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and was a vocal critic of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The flood of advertisements attacking Waters falsely claimed she didn’t support same-sex marriage and highlighted g her past misdemeanor guilty plea stemming from a bribery scheme, according to previous reporting by the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

“Did the ads play a factor? Hell yeah,” Waters adviser Sam Riddle told BridgeDetroit after Thanedar won the primary. 

Blue Wave Action is what’s known as a “pop-up” super political action committee, a group formed close enough to an election that information about its donors isn’t disclosed until the contest is over. 

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When Blue Wave Action made its first disclosure Tuesday, it revealed $10,000 in payments for “Personnel/Administrative Support” to AIPAC, a pro-Israel group that has spent heavily to try and oust progressive Democrats critical of the country’s ongoing war with Hamas. 

Two other AIPAC-linked super PACs contributed a combined $1.5 million.

Thanedar and his campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story. 

But a spokesperson for AIPAC told Bridge Michigan the group preferred Thanedar over Waters in the primary because he has “strongly supported standing with Israel” in Congress. 

Federal records show Blue Wave Action PAC also spent $53,000 on mail supporting Hawkins, a longshot challenger who was unlikely to defeat Thanedar.

Pop-up PACs

Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel at Campaign Legal Center, an advocacy group, said pop-up super PACs like Blue Wave Action are increasing in prevalence.

“It's a really troubling trend for transparency that super PACs are able to game the reporting rules to deny voters the information that they're supposed to have,” Ports said in an interview. “Knowing who is financing a communication is pretty critical to analyzing the motive and credibility of that communication.”

Top donors to Blue Wave Action include the United Democracy Project and Voters For Responsive Government super PACs, both of which are affiliated with AIPAC and contributed a combined $1.5 million. 

The latter was used as a pop-up super PAC in an Oregon congressional election earlier this year. Voters For Responsive Government spent $3.2 million attacking Democrat Susheela Jayapal before having to report the source of its funding.

Blue Water Action’s only Michigan donor was a commercial real estate company, SF properties, run in part by former Michigan Republican Party chair Bobby Schostak, who has previously voiced the importance of “unyielding support” for Israel. The company donated $75,000.

AIPAC’s indirect defense of Thanedar marked the culmination of a reversal for the first-term congressman. As a state legislator in 2021, Thanedar had co-sponsored a resolution calling Israel an “apartheid state” and urging an end to federal aid for the country.

In his first run for Congress in 2022, United Democracy Project — the same PAC that helped fund attacks on Thanedar’s primary opponent this year — spent more than $1.4 million attacking Thanedar and another $2.7 million supporting a primary opponent, Adam Hollier.

Free trip for Thanedar

After taking office, in August 2023, Thanedar traveled to Tel Aviv in a week-long trip paid for by the AIPAC-linked American Israel Education Foundation, which included lodging, food and members of Thanedar’s family, according to the disclosure.

After that trip, Thanedar told the publication Jewish Insider he had a “big learning experience” since taking office and now believes Israel to be a “vibrant, liberal democracy” and “important ally” to the U.S.

Waters, by contrast, launched her congressional bid with a “world peace agenda” and forceful opposition to the conflict in Gaza. In February, Waters announced she would vote "uncommitted" in Michigan's presidential primary as a form of protest against the war. 

Fervent divisions over U.S. support for Israel during the war have become a lightning rod in some Democratic contests.

“Our sole criterion for supporting or opposing candidates is their position on strengthening the US-Israel relationship,” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told Bridge in a statement. 

“Since entering Congress, Rep. Thanedar has strongly supported standing with Israel as it battles Iranian terrorist proxies. He has cosponsored important legislation and supported critical security assistance for America’s ally Israel.”

AIPAC support for other Michigan candidates

Along with Thanedar, AIPAC has bundled contributions to eight other Michigan congressional candidates so far this cycle, according to a Bridge review of federal election data. 

That includes all six Michigan Republicans in the U.S. House, along with Democratic Reps. Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids and Haley Stevens of Birmingham. Thanedar, however, received the most of any candidate: About $147,00 of the $900,000 he raised from donors. 

Democrats Hill Harper and Nasser Beydoun previously alleged the pro-Israel group offered them $20 million in funding to run against U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, the only Palestinian American in Congress. But neither did so. 

Elsewhere, AIPAC's United Democracy Project super PAC reportedly spent millions of dollars this year on successful campaigns to oust U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri. 

Two years ago, AIPAC spent more than $4 million to oppose then-U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish progressive, in a Democratic primary against Stevens.

Thanedar draws ire of pro-Palestinian activists

Thanedar, a wealthy entrepreneur, has largely self-funded his own campaign this year, lending $5.2 million of the roughly $7.1 million his re-election committee took in. 

His pivot toward Israel hasn’t come without cost. 

Some of his district events have been disrupted by protestors, there have been protests outside his home and a fight erupted during a confrontation with activists last December at a Detroit event.

At that time, Thanedar had opposed a ceasefire in the conflict, but by February his office released a statement supporting a ceasefire, which he said “must begin” with the dismantling of Hamas, the same stance shared by Israeli government leaders.

All told, the 13th District Democratic primary featured more than $3.3 million in disclosed outside spending — far and away the most of any congressional race in the state. The next closest was the $790,000 spent in the 8th Congressional District Republican primary, according to Federal Election Commission data.

A pro-cryptocurrency super PAC called Protect Progress spent more than $1 million to support Thanedar, who has significant cryptocurrency holdings of his own. 

As of the most recent congressional financial disclosure, Thanedar reported three cryptocurrencies totaling $365,000 minimum in value.