Four super PACs with ties to AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel have surged into a Minnesota House race in the final months of the campaign, hoping to fend off the latest progressive insurgent.

In the three-way race, one candidate, Matt Klein, is unapologetically supportive of Israel, while two others, Matt Little and Kaela Berg, have been critics to varying degrees. Little, however, has the support of the group A New Policy, which was founded to support pro-Palestinian candidates and lobby Congress against Israeli interests. Another PAC, called American Priorities, which was organized to be a counterweight to AIPAC, has jumped into the race to support Little with a spend of some $60,000.

314 Action, a super PAC ostensibly organized to support scientists and medical professionals, this week reported spending nearly $2.5 million supporting Klein, a staggering amount in a previously sleepy race, given that the PAC has raised just $15 million for the full cycle. (A spokesperson for 314 insists none of the funds have come from AIPAC or its allied organizations.)

In a strategy that has been deployed in other races, the pro-Israel money is boosting Klein, the pro-Israel candidate, while other PACs with ties to AIPAC are boosting the alternative progressive candidate who is trailing in the polls, hoping to draw votes away from Little.

The race was reshaped on May 9, when Little won the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic Farmers and Labor Party. On May 1, AIPAC’s super PAC had transferred $350,000 to EDW Action Fund, followed by $100,000 on May 10 and another $400,000 on May 20, money that would soon end up in the Minnesota race. (EDW did not respond to requests for clarification on why the money was moved and where it was ultimately spent.)

Little released an internal survey conducted between May 18 and 20, which found him well ahead, taking 41% of the vote, with Berg and Klein far behind in a statistical tie for second, with Berg at 13% and Klein at 11%. A little more than a week later, Klein fielded his own poll, which found Little at 26%, only 7 points over Klein’s 19%. Berg was in third with 16%. The largest group of the 403 likely voters surveyed in the poll, 39%, said they “don’t know” who they’d vote for. While Klein’s internal poll demonstrates that Little was firmly the frontrunner in the race two months before election day, it was conducted before the surge in outside spending began.

The congressional seat is being vacated by Democrat Angie Craig, who is running for Senate. The primary is on Tuesday.

Given the numbers, the path to victory for Klein was clear: He needed Little to be brought down by boosting Berg—splitting the vote between the two progressives—and needed big money to get himself past both of them.

In stepped the PACs organized to support women, which were funded by AIPAC and DMFI. EDW Action spent roughly $395,000 supporting Berg between June 26 and August 3. Of the $395,000 burned, $99,999 came directly from EDW and $295,000 came from its sister organization called Pro-Choice Majority Action, a hybrid PAC recently formed on May 1 as a legal affiliate of EDW Action. EDW transferred $626,000 and $100,000 to Pro-Choice Majority Action on May 21 and May 22 respectively, on the two days after receiving the final batch of AIPAC’s $850,000 dump, and sent another $150,000 a week later on May 29, helping to enable Pro-Choice Majority’s ensuing spend on Berg’s behalf and more.

Moving money between multiple PACs before spending it doesn’t necessarily make it much harder to trace, but it does make it more confusing for voters and local reporters covering the race. AIPAC, for its part, accuses reporters of antisemitism for following AIPAC money through the FEC files toward its final destination. Candidates like Little risk being called conspiracy theorists when they point to the clear source of the money. Indeed, after Drop Site reached out to Berg’s campaign for comment, Berg posted a video on X accusing Little of lying about her and insisting that she doesn’t take AIPAC money: “I never have, and I never will.”

It is true she has not taken AIPAC money directly, but on May 13, four days after Little won the DFL endorsement, DMFI transferred $500,000 to Women Vote, the independent expenditure arm of EMILY’s List, a pro-choice PAC. Then, less than a month later, Women Vote spent $584,448 in independent expenditures supporting Berg.

“Women Vote works with a variety of partners to elect Democratic pro-choice women and build winning coalitions,” a source familiar with Women Vote’s spending told Drop Site. “The donation referenced was for a program in a different race and has nothing to do with Kaela Berg or this race.”

Though the source did not disclose the recipient of the $500,000, Women Vote did spend a total of $653,885 supporting Shannon Bird, a DMFI-endorsee, in her unsuccessful bid to become the Democratic nominee in Colorado’s 8th congressional district. Despite securing DMFI’s endorsement, Bird, who ultimately lost to Manny Rutinel, does not list the PACs support on her website.

Nevertheless, the total dollars spent on Berg’s behalf by PACs that have been used as pro-Israel passthroughs at some point, including Women Vote, amounts to $979,448 since June 11. Now, the fact that PACs linked to AIPAC are spending to boost Berg doesn’t mean Berg herself is aware of the links, and doesn’t mean pro-Israel donors affirmatively want Berg to win. DMFI, when reached for comment, rejected any involvement with Women Vote’s support for Berg’s campaign.

“DMFI PAC endorsed Matt Klein in this race. Kaela Berg’s views are equally as anti-Israel as Matt Little’s,” a DMFI spokesperson told Drop Site.

Again, while it’s true that Berg and Little share some of the same criticisms of Israel, the polls have Berg far behind, meaning that voters drawn from Little to Berg are a boost to Klein, DMFI’s candidate.

A Berg spokesperson rejected any relation between these groups’ spending in the race and the pro-Israel lobby’s donations to the spenders.

“Matt Little agrees with Kaela on Israel and AIPAC, that’s why AIPAC is funneling millions in dark money into this race at the 11th hour to support Matt Klein,” the spokesperson told Drop Site. “As the only woman running for Congress, Kaela is proud to have the support of the same organizations that have supported Peggy Flanagan and every woman in the MN Congressional Delegation. The truth is, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to be a danger to the world and if she’s elected to Congress, Kaela will do everything in her power to stop the genocide and Netanyahu’s government.”

Berg has earned support from three state senators, 28 of her colleagues in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and national progressive organizations like Our Revolution and End Citizens United. She’s supported by many unions, too: the Association of Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the Carpenters Union, UNITE HERE, United Auto Workers, the Air Line Pilots Association, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers, the Amalgamated Transit Union, local members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Steelworkers, and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. She has also received some support from D.C., racking up endorsements from Rep. Chris Deluzio, who many speculate is eyeing a primary challenge to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) in 2028, and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.).

Aside from securing the coveted Minnesota DFL endorsement, Little has also picked up backing from the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, and key figures within the existing progressive infrastructure in Congress. Rep. Greg Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, former CPC chair, and Rep. Maxwell Frost, one of CPC’s vice chairs, have all publicly supported his candidacy.

The CPC’s PAC is also supporting Little.

Klein, for his part, has also seen a flood of supportive outside spending. 314 Action Fund is a super PAC which backs candidates who are involved in science or medicine, but has sometimes acted in the past as an AIPAC passthrough. FEC records show that the super PAC spent $1,261,341 in independent expenditures backing Klein in four installments between July 20 and July 30. On August 5, 314 Action dropped another $1.2 million into the race.

The state senator has also received an additional $138,440 from 57 individual donors who have also given to AIPAC, UDP, or DMFI. All of the individual donations were given on the same day, June 28, many divided in various increments amounting to the maximum $3,500 individual contribution each.

Among those individuals is James Sprayregen, who sits on the National Board of AIPAC and serves on the Board of Governors for the American Jewish Committee. Sprayregen contributed $129,500 to the pro-Israel groups and to Klein in three separate same-day installments amounting to $3,499.99, one cent below the legal maximum, possibly to avoid being classified as a max-out donor.

Also listed among the individual donors pooled by AIPAC on Klein’s behalf are Jody Forchheimer, who gave $283,456 to pro-Israel PACs and $3,500 to Klein, and Gadi Maier, who gave $135,000 to pro-Israel PACs and $3,500 to Klein. Forchheimer is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Louis D. Brandeis Center, a pro-Israel legal organization fighting antisemitism cases, and publicly discussed her role in pro-Israel advocacy at the AIPAC policy conference in 2019. Maier is an Israeli-American tech entrepreneur who is founder and CEO of ID Handshake, the first and a current board member at Forter, a fraud prevention platform, and formerly served as CEO of both FraudSciences and FreeMonee.

When asked about 314 Action Fund backing Klein’s campaign and an inquiry about the aforementioned prominent pro-Israel donors, the campaign manager provided a statement in response to the latter.

“Our campaign is powered by thousands of supporters from every background and every faith—because that’s who we are, and that’s who I’ve spent my career serving,” Klein told Drop Site. “As a doctor, I’ve cared for Jewish families, Muslim families, Christian families, and families of no faith at all, and I’ve never once asked who they were before helping them. This campaign is no different. I’m proud of the support we’ve received from neighbors, community leaders, and working families of all denominations.”

Addressing the first question, the spokesperson added, “You should talk with 314 about their funding. I have copied Eden from their team on this email.”

The move was eyebrow-raising, as campaigns and independent expenditure groups are not allowed to coordinate campaign activity. Though it is not considered best practice for campaigns and independent expenditure arms to communicate at all, it is legal to discuss some information as long as it doesn’t amount to coordination.

314 Action also received a $2.5 million donation from pro-Israel billionaire Michael Bloomberg on May 4, just months before its spending blitz in Minnesota. Whether Bloomberg’s money is earmarked to the Klein race is unclear; it would be odd if so, as Berg is endorsed by the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, which Bloomberg founded and primarily finances. That would mean Bloomberg was spending against himself in the same race.

Joshua Morrow, 314 Action Fund’s president, said in a statement that the group is not funneling pro-Israel PAC money into the race. “As we have said multiple times, 314 Action Fund has not taken money from AIPAC or its affiliated entities this cycle and we won’t,” Morrow said. “We have spent over $14.5 million supporting STEM candidates in 2026 and not a cent has come from AIPAC, UDP, DMFI or affiliated entities. Similarly, our investments in Dr. Matt Klein are not from AIPAC or affiliated entities, and any suggestion otherwise is false, sensationalized and reported without sources.”

Still, Klein refuses to recognize the genocide in Gaza, instead broadly calling for a two-state solution. Berg and Little, backed by David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve, on the other hand, have publicly called it one. Little differentiates himself from Berg, however, in supporting a suspension on any further U.S. military aid to Israel, while the latter has advocated for conditioning it. In a video posted Wednesday, she calls for an end “to all weapons sales to Israel,” going further than she had previously.

Klein has racked up endorsements from 19 colleagues in the Minnesota state senate, but has not received any explicit endorsements from Washington. The two-term state senator has also faced some scandal in the race, having placed a $50 wager on Kalshi, a prediction market service, betting that he’d win the MN-02 primary, which ultimately led to an April 2026 fine and five-year ban from the platform. Klein introduced an ultimately unsuccessful bill in the state legislature in 2024 that would have weakened regulations on sports gambling, a highly profitable path for companies like Kalshi.

Leave a comment

Share