AIPAC-Linked Money Floods Minnesota Primary in Bid to Sink Progressive Frontrunner

Four super PACs tied to AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel have pumped more than $3 million into a previously sleepy Minnesota House primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Drop Site News. The race, to succeed Rep. Angie Craig, who is running for Senate, will be decided Tuesday.

The money is aimed at stopping Matt Little, a progressive who has been critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza and won the Minnesota DFL endorsement on May 9. An internal Little poll from May 18-20 had him at 41 percent, with rivals Kaela Berg and Matt Klein far behind at 13 and 11 percent.

Splitting the progressive vote

Klein is the race's unapologetically pro-Israel candidate. Rather than spend directly to prop him up while attacking Little, pro-Israel-linked money has taken a more circuitous route: propping up Berg, the other progressive-leaning candidate, in an apparent effort to split votes that would otherwise consolidate behind Little.

FEC records show AIPAC's super PAC transferred $850,000 to the EDW Action Fund in three installments during May: $350,000 on May 1, $100,000 on May 10, and $400,000 on May 20. Two days after the final transfer, EDW moved $626,000 to Pro-Choice Majority Action, a hybrid PAC formed as its legal affiliate on May 1, followed by another $150,000 a week later.

Between June 26 and August 3, EDW and Pro-Choice Majority Action together spent roughly $395,000 supporting Berg. Separately, DMFI transferred $500,000 to Women Vote, the independent-expenditure arm of EMILY's List, on May 13, just four days after Little's DFL endorsement. Women Vote went on to spend $584,448 supporting Berg. In total, PACs that have at some point served as pro-Israel money conduits have spent $979,448 boosting Berg's campaign since June 11.

Meanwhile, 314 Action, a super PAC nominally focused on electing scientists, reported spending nearly $2.5 million supporting Klein, despite having raised only $15 million for the entire election cycle. A spokesperson for 314 Action told Drop Site none of that money came from AIPAC or its allied organizations.

Denials and disputes

After Drop Site contacted her campaign, Berg posted a video on X denying she takes AIPAC money: "I never have, and I never will." That is technically accurate; the money reaching her campaign passed through Women Vote and EDW Action rather than AIPAC directly.

A Women Vote source told Drop Site the $500,000 from DMFI was earmarked for "a different race" and had nothing to do with Berg. Women Vote has separately spent $653,885 supporting Shannon Bird, a DMFI-endorsed candidate who lost her Colorado primary.

DMFI, for its part, insisted it has no connection to the pro-Berg spending. "DMFI PAC endorsed Matt Klein in this race. Kaela Berg's views are equally as anti-Israel as Matt Little's," a spokesperson said.

Little has called on Berg to publicly reject money from any group tied to AIPAC or DMFI, saying he would return contributions himself if his own endorsers took such funds. Berg's campaign has countered that Little "agrees with Kaela on Israel and AIPAC," and argues AIPAC is instead funneling money to Klein.

Berg has also drawn support from progressive-aligned groups including Our Revolution and End Citizens United, along with endorsements from 28 state House colleagues, and has framed outside union and pro-choice backing as unrelated to Israel politics.

Why the money trail matters

The layered transfers, from AIPAC's super PAC to EDW Action to Pro-Choice Majority Action, and from DMFI to Women Vote, make the ultimate source of campaign spending harder for voters to trace on a single FEC filing. That opacity is not incidental; it lets pro-Israel donor networks influence a Democratic primary without a candidate's name ever appearing next to AIPAC's on a disclosure form. AIPAC has previously characterized reporting that follows its money through these intermediary PACs as antisemitic.