A progressive pro-Palestine group, the IMEU Policy Project, is spending $2 million on midterm election ads targeting Republicans for supporting Israel and backing Democrats who oppose weapons sales to it. The group aims to exploit perceived Republican vulnerabilities and internal party rifts over foreign policy, arguing that Democratic leadership is ignoring evidence that their support for Israel is unpopular with key voters.
The article states Democratic leadership has not incorporated concerns about Gaza policy into their midterm strategy, despite internal findings that it cost votes in 2024. Recent primary results, however, suggest some voter appetite for candidates critical of Israel, with several races showing strong performances by challengers advocating for Palestinian rights.
The main topics covered are: the IMEU Policy Project's political ad campaign, internal Democratic and Republican party dynamics regarding Israel-Gaza policy, and primary election results reflecting voter sentiment on this issue.
Midterm elections have kicked off against the backdrop of the U.S. and Israel’s intensifying war on Iran — and a progressive pro-Palestine group is spending $2 million on ads this cycle targeting Republicans over their support for Israel and backing Democrats who favor blocking weapons sales to the country.
The latest ad buy by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project is one of the largest investments by a pro-Palestine group so far in a cycle that’s seen progressives ramp up attacks on the pro-Israel lobby and its widespread support among members of Congress. Now, IMEU Policy Project hopes to take advantage of what it calls a growing vulnerability for Republicans while the consequences of their support for Israel have been laid bare in the form of President Donald Trump’s latest act of war on Iran.
The war has aggravated long-standing Republican fault lines on foreign policy and resurfaced questions about where the party that calls itself “America First” actually stands on embroiling the U.S. in fighting overseas. Those rifts were on full display this week, when Trump appeared to walk back comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio blaming Israel for dragging the U.S. into the war.
“The perception that President Trump launched this war against Iran for Israel’s benefit is dividing his base and will benefit Democrats in 2026,” said IMEU Policy Project spokesperson Hamid Bendaas, “if Democrats choose to take advantage.”
So far, the party’s leadership has declined. Despite reportedly concluding in an internal autopsy that Kamala Harris lost voters over Gaza in the 2024 presidential election, Democrats have not incorporated those findings into their midterm strategy, Bendaas said. The party is on track to repeat those forced errors and whiff an opportunity to make significant gains in upcoming midterms if they continue to ignore the evidence around them, he added.
“Democrats made the costly mistake of ignoring the deep unpopularity of support for Israel — and its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza — among their own voters in 2024,” Bendaas said. “They could miss another opportunity if Democratic leadership and candidates in swing districts continue to take money from AIPAC and refuse to capitalize on one of their strongest attack lines against Republicans going into November.”
Democratic results in the midterms’ first round of primaries on Tuesday offered some evidence that voters are interested in changing the status quo on Israel. In Texas, Frederick Haynes III, a reverend who has been outspoken in calling for justice for Palestinians and labeling Israel an apartheid state, won a landslide victory to replace Rep. Jasmine Crockett when she vacates her seat. Crockett, who has largely followed the party line on Israel and Palestine, meanwhile lost the Senate primary to state Rep. James Talarico, who is not a known advocate for Palestine but who local organizers see as potentially more amenable to the cause. In North Carolina, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who ran explicitly against pro-Israel interests, came within 1 percentage point of incumbent Democratic Rep. Valerie Foushee, who the pro-Israel lobby helped elect in 2022. (Their race was too close to call as of early Wednesday afternoon, and Allam plans to request a recount.)
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, IMEU Policy Project relayed concerns to Harris’s campaign that Gaza would cost her votes. After the election, it was one of several groups that met with the Democratic National Committee over concerns about Israel policy. IMEU Policy Project had concluded the issue was a liability in its own polling — and in the meeting, the DNC acknowledged it had found the same.
In January, the group sent a letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, obtained by The Intercept, warning the congressional Democrats’ campaign arm about the DNC’s findings and its own, and advising DCCC about the group’s plans to run ads against vulnerable Republicans. IMEU Policy Project sent the letter to DCCC prior to reporting from Axios that verified the DNC’s Gaza autopsy findings.
“We are confident in saying that internal DNC data corroborated our conclusion that Biden’s support for Israel cost Democrats votes in 2024, and have concerns that the DNC’s suppression of this report is motivated, at least in part, by their finding that support for Israel is an electoral liability for the party,” reads the letter. “We look forward to engaging with you to ensure that the pivotal lessons from the 2024 election are not repeated, and instead incorporated into the Democratic Party’s strategy in the months ahead and before the pivotal midterm general elections.” DCCC did not respond to the letter and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
IMEU Policy Project launched its latest round of ads last week against Republicans in toss-up districts in Arizona and Iowa. The new ads target Reps. Juan Ciscomani and Marianette Miller-Meeks for voting to send billions of dollars to Israel while supporting cuts to health care.
“Israelis enjoy universal health care, while Americans go bankrupt from medical bills. Miller-Meeks’ reward? Giant campaign donations from AIPAC and the pro-Netanyahu lobby,” the ad says.
IMEU Policy Project spent $25,000 on its first round of ads in January targeting Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican running in a tight reelection contest in New York, for voting to send billions of dollars to Israel while supporting cuts to Medicaid services at home.
Democrats have shown little sign that they’ll take the prospect of parting ways with the pro-Israel lobby seriously, even as they watch the U.S. and Israel unleash destruction in Iran. While several progressives have vocally opposed the war, the party has largely been caught flatfooted on Iran, with Democratic leaders reportedly slow-walking a vote on the Iran war powers resolution, opening the door for Trump to attack Iran before Congress reconvened on Monday. The Senate is expected to vote on an Iran war powers resolution on Wednesday, followed by a House vote on Thursday.
Several Democratic candidates running in midterm elections linked U.S. support for Israel to Trump’s war in Iran this week. Allam released the first ad of the cycle touching on Iran just ahead of Tuesday’s primary. “I have opposed these forever wars my entire career,” said the North Carolina candidate, “and I hope to earn your vote to be your proudly uncompromised pro-peace leader in Washington.” In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said the war was “un-American” and being pushed by Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Some sitting members of Congress made the same connection. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas both criticized Rubio and the Trump administration for allowing Israel to endanger U.S. interests.
“Secretary Rubio’s remarks indicate that Israel put U.S. forces in harm’s way by insisting on attacking Iran. And the administration was complicit — joining their war instead of talking them down,” Castro wrote in a post on X Monday. “This is unacceptable of the President, and unacceptable of a country that calls itself our ally.”
“So Netanyahu now decides when we go to war?” Gallego wrote the same day. “So much for America First.”
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