How AIPAC helps its candidates win

AIPAC’s own sworn Form 990 for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2025 reports $41,222,425 in “POLITICAL” program services. The same filing names three channels: direct contributions through the AIPAC PAC, contributions to super PACs, and an online portal for members giving directly to candidates.

The federal filings show how unevenly money moves through those channels. The AIPAC PAC forwarded $53,699,474.91 to candidates and committees in the 2024 cycle, mostly as donors’ earmarked gifts. On OpenSecrets’ tabulation, the PAC’s own direct contributions to candidates came to $3,037,900 in the same cycle. United Democracy Project, the affiliated super PAC, reported $53,603,927.44 in independent expenditures for the 2026 cycle by 14 October 2026, which is already more than it reported for the whole 2024 cycle.

A voter watching a primary fill with advertising has a plain question: whose money paid for the message, and by which route? The filings answer the route, channel by channel.

Key Findings

• AIPAC’s 2025 Form 990, a self-reported sworn filing, records $41,222,425 in “POLITICAL” program services. That is 63.8% of its $64,643,140 in total program services (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026).
• The AIPAC PAC transmitted $53,699,474.91 to federal candidates and committees in the 2024 cycle, mostly individual donors’ earmarked contributions (Federal Election Commission, 2026). Its own direct contributions to candidates, a separate measure, came to $3,037,900 (OpenSecrets, 2025).
• On OpenSecrets’ tabulation, United Democracy Project’s 2024-cycle independent expenditures included $20,786,780 opposing Democrats and $0 supporting Republicans. The four directional lines exceed the stated $37,860,200 total by about $38,105 (OpenSecrets, 2025).
• Schedule C of AIPAC’s Form 990 records a $25,000,000 payment of internal funds to United Democracy Project in 2025. In UDP’s 2024 cycle, the 100 largest receipts made up about 59% of its $85,770,677.06 in contributions (Federal Election Commission, 2026).
• The Guardian’s 2 June 2026 analysis of House ethics filings counts at least 26 Democratic and 52 Republican representatives on trips to Israel sponsored by AIPAC’s charitable affiliate since 7 October 2023, at a total cost of more than $4.2 million (The Guardian, 2026).

Which channels does AIPAC use to help candidates win?

AIPAC’s own sworn Form 990 for 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 reports $41,222,425 in “POLITICAL” program services, a self-reported figure. The filing itself names three channels: direct contributions “THROUGH THE AIPAC PAC”, contributions to super PACs, and “AN ON-LINE PORTAL TO MEMBERS WHO WISH TO CONTRIBUTE DIRECTLY TO MOCS AND CANDIDATES”. “MOCS” means members of Congress.

The political line is the largest of three program services on the return (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026). The filing lists information and member education at $16,099,860 and lobbying at $7,320,855. The three lines sum to the $64,643,140 program-services total, so the political line is 63.8% of it.

AIPAC files as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. It was formed in 1963 and has been tax-exempt since 1968, and contributions to it are not tax-deductible. The return reports total revenue of $122,539,124 for the year, against $156,448,717 the year before. Of that revenue, $113,407,711 came from contributions and grants.

Each channel the return names leaves its own federal record:

• The PAC. The AIPAC PAC files with the Federal Election Commission as committee C00797670. It is registered as a “Lobbyist/Registrant PAC” with AIPAC as its connected organization. Its filings record individual donors’ earmarked contributions forwarded to candidates and committees.
• The super PAC. United Democracy Project, the super PAC AIPAC pays into, files as committee C00799031.

The Form 990 runs October to September. Its totals therefore do not align with the two-year FEC election cycles, and they are never added to them.

Who says AIPAC backs allies and opposes critics, and since when?

AIPAC says so itself. Its About page, read on 9 November 2026, states: “We support pro-Israel candidates on both sides of the aisle and oppose anti-Israel candidates on both sides, as well.” The committees that carry out that policy are recent: the AIPAC PAC first filed with the Federal Election Commission on 15 December 2021, and United Democracy Project on 3 January 2022.

The same page says, “We help pro-Israel candidates get their message out by supporting their campaigns” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026). “Pro-Israel” and “anti-Israel” are AIPAC’s own categories, quoted here as its own words.

The filed record matches the stated policy. OpenSecrets’ tabulation of United Democracy Project’s 2024-cycle independent expenditures records four directional lines (OpenSecrets, 2025):

• $20,786,780 opposing Democrats, the largest line
• $14,067,863 supporting Democrats
• $3,043,662 opposing Republicans
• $0 supporting Republicans

In that cycle, money opposing candidates exceeded money supporting them. Every dollar UDP spent supporting a candidate went to a Democrat.

The four directional figures sum to $37,898,305. That is about $38,105 more than the $37,860,200 OpenSecrets gives as the cycle total, so the split and the total in the same tabulation do not reconcile exactly.

Spending was concentrated in particular races. OpenSecrets records more than $14.6 million spent in a single House race, New York’s 16th District, in 2024. This is the filed record behind descriptions of UDP spending against politicians AIPAC opposes.

An independent expenditure is uncoordinated with any campaign; that is the statutory condition that permits it. It is money spent about a race, not given to a campaign. The filings record direction and amount. They do not record effect.

How much donor money does AIPAC’s PAC forward to campaigns?

Federal Election Commission records for committee C00797670 show the AIPAC PAC transmitted $53,699,474.91 to federal candidates and committees in the 2024 cycle. Most of it was individual donors’ earmarked contributions, which the PAC forwards as a conduit rather than giving from its own funds.

An earmarked contribution is one a donor directs to a named recipient, with the PAC passing it on. Schedule B lists 55,871 line-23 disbursements for 2023 to 2024 (Federal Election Commission, 2026). The largest are each described on the filing as “EARMARK OF [contributor name]. TRANSMITTED BY CHECK/EFT”. Recipients include candidate committees and the national party committees, so the $53.7 million is not a candidates-only total.

Two cautions apply to these figures:

• Transactions, not donors. The 55,871 counts transactions. It does not count donors or recipients.
• Unitemized amounts do not count small donors. Earmarked receipts may be itemized whatever their size, so the PAC’s $81,538.91 in unitemized individual contributions does not measure how many small donors gave.

The receipts side of the same cycle shows where the money came from. The PAC took in $57,871,196.42, of which $54,887,799.21 was individual contributions. Operating expenditures were $2,609,838.29, and independent expenditures were $0. The committee’s registration lists its organization type as “Membership Organization.”

The PAC’s receipts tripled between its first cycle and its second. The 2026 cycle had nearly matched the full 2024 total by 14 October 2026, with the general-election period still to be reported. Earmark records name individual donors, but those donors are private individuals, and they are reported here only in aggregate.

Why are the PAC’s own direct contributions comparatively small?

OpenSecrets, working from FEC data released 6 February 2025, records $3,037,900 in direct contributions from the AIPAC PAC to federal candidates in the 2024 cycle. The figure is held down by statute: 52 U.S.C. 30116 caps a multicandidate committee’s contribution at $5,000 per candidate per election.

The money was spread thinly (OpenSecrets, 2025):

• Recipients. 347 House candidates and 20 Senate candidates received contributions.
• Largest recipient. No single recipient’s total exceeded $20,000.
• Party split. Of the $3,037,900, 63.02% went to Republicans and 36.62% to Democrats.

The recipients are candidates, including non-incumbents, so the count is not a count of sitting members of Congress.

The $3,037,900 and the FEC’s $53,699,474.91 measure different things, and they do not conflict. The OpenSecrets figure counts the PAC’s own contributions to candidates. The FEC line-23 total also carries donors’ earmarked contributions that the PAC transmits, and it includes party and other committees. The table sets the measures side by side so each can be read for what it counts. They are three channels, and the totals are not added.

The cap shapes the arrangement. Earmarked giving lets individual donors give directly to candidates, each under their own limits, with the PAC acting as conduit. Independent expenditures face no contribution cap, because they are not contributions.

How does AIPAC put its own money into the super PAC?

Schedule C of AIPAC’s 2025 Form 990 records $25,000,000 of the organization’s internal funds paid to United Democracy Project. The filing states: “IN 2025, AIPAC MADE A $25 MILLION CONTRIBUTION TO UDP.” This is AIPAC’s own sworn report of the transfer.

The payment is the larger of two items in AIPAC’s reported political expenditures, which total $38,304,939 (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026). The other item is $13,304,939 expended on section 527 activities. Part IX of the same return separately lists $1,276,500 in “CONTRIBUTIONS TO CANDIDATES.”

United Democracy Project is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a “Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only)”, designation “Unauthorized”. That means no candidate authorizes it. Under federal law, such a committee may accept unlimited sums, including from an organization’s treasury, and spend them on independent expenditures.

UDP’s receipts for the 2026 cycle reached $112,820,861.12 by 14 October 2026 (Federal Election Commission, 2026). The cycle covers 1 January 2025 onward, and the payment Schedule C dates to 2025 appears on UDP’s filings as a receipt. The $25,000,000 is therefore one transfer recorded twice, once as AIPAC’s payment and once as UDP’s receipt. It is counted once.

The two filings also run on different calendars. AIPAC’s fiscal year ends 30 September; UDP’s cycle runs in two-year blocks. The $38,304,939 on the Form 990 is never added to UDP’s receipts or to the AIPAC PAC’s totals.

Do large or small donors fund the super PAC?

The Federal Election Commission’s Schedule A for United Democracy Project’s 2024 cycle lists 1,361 itemized receipts.

The 100 largest, each $100,000 or more, total $50,554,859.51, which is about 59% of the cycle’s $85,770,677.06 in contributions.

Small-dollar money barely registers in UDP’s totals (Federal Election Commission, 2026):

• 2024 cycle. Unitemized contributions, from donors giving $200 or less in aggregate over the cycle, came to $819.00.
• 2026 cycle. Unitemized contributions came to $12.00 of $108,620,919.70 in contributions, as of 14 October 2026.

These lines measure the small-donor share of UDP’s money. They say nothing about AIPAC’s membership.

The 59% is a share of receipts, meaning transactions, not a share of donors. A single donor making several large gifts appears more than once among the top 100. The figure was computed from the top 100 entries of the itemized list for 2023 to 2024.

The pattern differs from the AIPAC PAC’s. The PAC’s individual contributions of $54,887,799.21 in 2024 arrive mostly as earmarks bound for named recipients. UDP’s contributions arrive as unrestricted funds the super PAC spends itself. The two committees’ receipts are never added together, because they are separate entities under separate rules.

Itemized donors to both committees are named on FEC filings, which is the disclosure record behind questions about undisclosed money. Those donors are private individuals, and they are reported here only in aggregate.

Has the super PAC’s independent spending grown since 2022?

Federal Election Commission totals record $53,603,927.44 in independent expenditures by United Democracy Project for the 2026 cycle as of 14 October 2026. That already exceeds the $37,859,810.12 the committee filed for the whole 2024 cycle, even though the 2026 cycle is still open and includes the general-election period.

UDP’s first cycle set a lower baseline. In 2022 it reported $26,118,700.49 in independent expenditures on $35,943,280.96 in receipts (Federal Election Commission, 2026). Receipts then rose to $87,176,557.14 in the 2024 cycle and $112,820,861.12 in the 2026 cycle to date. The 2026 figures move with every monthly report, so they carry their coverage date wherever they appear.

Cash on hand grew alongside spending:

• 31 December 2024. UDP held $28,802,895.10.
• 14 October 2026. UDP held $56,566,332.96.

Operating expenditures in the 2024 cycle were $14,908,342.42. These are reported separately from independent expenditures.

The filed 2024 figure differs slightly from the aggregator’s. OpenSecrets gives $37,860,200 for the same cycle, $389.88 above the filed $37,859,810.12. Where the number is the filed amount, the filing is cited.

How many lawmakers has AIPAC’s charitable affiliate flown to Israel?

The Guardian’s 2 June 2026 analysis of House ethics filings counts at least 26 Democratic and 52 Republican representatives on trips to Israel sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation since 7 October 2023, across at least 15 delegations. The foundation (AIEF) is AIPAC’s 501(c)(3) charitable affiliate.

The Guardian reports these figures for the trips (The Guardian, 2026):

• Delegations. At least 15.
• Total cost. More than $4.2 million.
• Average. Over $26,600 per member, on the outlet’s own calculation.

The aggregate is the Guardian’s tabulation of official filings. The underlying records are pre-travel approvals held by the House Committee on Ethics and post-travel disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House.

The sponsoring entity matters under House rules. Under the 2007 travel rules, as the Guardian’s analysis describes them, a lobbying organization may generally sponsor only single-day travel, while a 501(c)(3) may sponsor longer trips. AIPAC files Lobbying Disclosure Act reports as a registrant. AIEF, the sponsor of these trips, is organized as a charity. AIEF states that its missions are educational. The Guardian’s headline describes the trips as “lavish.”

This channel differs from the others in two ways. First, it reaches sitting members of Congress rather than campaigns. Second, it is non-cash: trips are reported as gifted travel, not as campaign contributions or independent expenditures. No FEC total includes it, and it is never added to one.

How many members and volunteers does AIPAC report?

AIPAC’s About page, read 9 November 2026, says it has “more than 6.5 million members nationwide of different faiths, backgrounds, and political affiliations.” This is the organization’s own figure and it is unverified. The page does not define “member.”

The same page describes AIPAC as “an American grassroots organization.” It adds that “AIPAC is a membership organization” whose decisions “are made by its Board of Directors” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026). It also says members include “small-dollar contributors and major donors.” AIPAC uses the word “grassroots” on its 2025 Form 990 as well, which opens with the same self-description.

AIPAC’s sworn return records the following on membership and staffing:

The return also describes what membership involves. Members “SHALL BE ENTITLED TO ELECT ONE MEMBER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND/OR VOTE ON THE ORGANIZATION’S ACTION PRINCIPLES BY CASTING THEIR VOTES AT AN ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS.” The board has 39 voting members, of whom 38 are reported as independent. All $113,407,711 in contributions sits on the “all other contributions” line, including $12,229,383 noncash.

FEC records count transactions, not people, so they do not supply a member count either.

Which tactics leave no trace in the public filings?

The Senate Office of Public Records’ Lobbying Disclosure Act register records $3,757,105 in lobbying income reported by AIPAC for 2025, across four quarterly LD-2 reports. Like the FEC and IRS filings, the register has no field for which candidates AIPAC endorsed, which lawmakers it met, or what any expenditure achieved.

The amount sits on the form’s income line. AIPAC files as its own client, with the “Self” box checked. It completes line 12, “INCOME relating to lobbying activities”, and leaves line 13, for lobbying expense, blank (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026). The quarterly figures were:

• Q1: $963,135
• Q2: $880,060
• Q3: $940,000
• Q4: $973,910

An LD-2 is a self-declared good-faith estimate certified by the filer, not an audited figure.

The register’s figure is a different measure from the Form 990’s lobbying line. The $7,320,855 lobbying program-service line on the Form 990 covers a fiscal year ending September and follows a different form’s definitions. The two are not compared.

None of the four registers carries an outcome column. The FEC filings record amount and direction; the Form 990 records program categories; the LDA register records income; the House travel disclosures record trips. None records an endorsement, a candidate meeting, a donor-network signal, or whether a candidate won because of the money. AIPAC’s own About page describes helping candidates “get their message out”, but no federal register counts the candidates it endorses.

Lobbying, direct contributions and independent expenditures run under three different statutes. Their figures are never added into a single AIPAC total.

Methodology and limitations

Sources, by type. The evidence comes from primary filings, one organizational statement and two named secondary analyses:

• AIPAC’s Form 990. The fiscal year 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, filed 20 August 2026 and read from the public IRS e-file record on 9 November 2026. This is a sworn but self-reported filing.
• FEC committee records. Cycle totals for committees C00797670 (AIPAC PAC) and C00799031 (United Democracy Project), read 9 November 2026. Coverage runs to 14 October 2026 for the open 2026 cycle.
• Senate LDA register. AIPAC’s 2025 LD-2 reports, read 19 August 2026.
• AIPAC’s About page. Read 9 November 2026 and cited throughout as the organization’s own, unverified statement.
• OpenSecrets tabulations. Based on FEC data released 6 February 2025.
• The Guardian’s analysis. The outlet’s 2 June 2026 analysis of House ethics filings, attributed to the outlet.

Handling rules. These rules were applied throughout:

• Filing over aggregator. Where a filing and an aggregator differ ($389.88 on UDP’s 2024 independent expenditures), the filing is cited.
• Stated gaps. Where an aggregator’s parts do not sum to its total ($38,105 on UDP’s directional split), the gap is stated.
• No summing across channels. Figures from the PAC, the super PAC, the LDA register and the Form 990 come from separate entities, statutes and periods, and are never summed.
• No double counting. The $25,000,000 payment appears on both AIPAC’s return and UDP’s receipts and is counted once.

What each figure measures. The 55,871 count is of transactions. The 59% share is of itemized receipts, not donors. Unitemized totals are not a measure of small-donor participation in the AIPAC PAC, because its earmarks may be itemized at any size. The LDA figure is reported income, a good-faith estimate that is not independently verified.

Limitations. The 2026 cycle is open, so its totals change monthly. The Form 990’s Schedule B donor list is restricted in the public copy. Self-reported figures (the Form 990, the LD-2s, the About page) are AIPAC’s own counts. Individual donors and earmarkers who appear on the filings are private individuals and are reported only in aggregate. No federal register in this set records endorsements or electoral outcomes.

Conclusion

So whose money paid, and by which route? On AIPAC’s own filings and the FEC’s records, the routes are distinct and checkable.

The organization names its political channels on its sworn return and reports $41,222,425 in political program services. Its PAC moves most of its money as donors’ earmarks, $53,699,474.91 in the 2024 cycle, while its own capped gifts to candidates come to $3,037,900. Its super PAC spent more opposing candidates than supporting them in 2024, recorded $0 supporting Republicans, and drew about 59% of its contributions from 100 receipts. It received $25,000,000 of AIPAC’s own funds in 2025, by AIPAC’s own report. Its independent spending has risen in every cycle on record.

Alongside the campaign money, AIPAC’s charitable affiliate flew at least 26 Democratic and 52 Republican representatives to Israel since 7 October 2023, by the Guardian’s count. AIPAC’s claim of more than 6.5 million members, its own unverified figure, sits beside a sworn return that reports 42 volunteers and no dues.

The record makes the direction of almost every dollar visible, from a single $25,000,000 transfer to a $0 line. It never records what any of those dollars bought. A ledger that shows where money went in a primary, but not what happened because of it, leaves an open question for the public: what evidence would separate money that follows a winning candidate from money that makes one?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can AIPAC coordinate super PAC advertising with a candidate’s campaign?

No. Independent expenditures are, by the statutory definition that permits them, uncoordinated with any campaign (OpenSecrets, 2025). United Democracy Project is registered with the Federal Election Commission as an independent-expenditure-only super PAC with the designation “Unauthorized,” meaning no candidate authorizes it.

Does AIPAC disclose who funds it?

AIPAC’s 2025 Form 990 restricts its Schedule B donor list in the public copy, so the return gives no donor count. Donors to the AIPAC PAC and to United Democracy Project above the $200 itemization threshold are listed on FEC Schedule A filings.

How do AIPAC and its charitable foundation differ in tax status?

AIPAC files as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, and contributions to it are not tax-deductible, per its 2025 Form 990. The American Israel Education Foundation is organized under section 501(c)(3), the status that permits the multi-day congressional travel the Guardian’s 2026 analysis tallied.

How large are pro-Israel PACs’ direct contributions as a group?

OpenSecrets records $5,428,588 in direct contributions from pro-Israel PACs to candidates in the 2024 cycle. That is an industry total covering more than one committee. It is a different measure from United Democracy Project’s independent expenditures, and the two are not added together.

Did AIPAC use an outside lobbying firm in 2025?

No outside firm compensation appears for 2025 on the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act register. AIPAC reports the entire total in-house and lists itself as its own client.

Has AIPAC’s reported lobbying income changed over time?

Yes. The Senate register records AIPAC’s annual totals as follows:

• 2021: $2,757,247
• 2022: $2,723,081
• 2023: $3,059,885
• 2024: $3,324,268
• 2025: $3,757,105

Each year’s total comes from the same four-report structure.

Why are AIPAC’s lobbying figures not rounded?

The LD-2 form asks for a good-faith estimate “rounded to the nearest $10,000.” AIPAC’s 2025 quarterly amounts include $963,135 and $973,910, which are not rounded. The Senate register records this as a property of the filing; no one checks the arithmetic before a report posts.

Sources

• American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026. About AIPAC: frequently asked questions. AIPAC. https://www.aipac.org/about (read 9 November 2026). Organization’s own statement, unverified.
• American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026. Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, fiscal year 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. Internal Revenue Service public e-file record, EIN 53-0217164, e-file object 202622329349301312. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530217164. Official or primary record (self-reported sworn filing).
• Federal Election Commission, 2026. AIPAC PAC committee record and financial totals, 2022 to 2026 cycles. Committee C00797670. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00797670/. Official or primary record.
• Federal Election Commission, 2026. United Democracy Project committee record and financial totals, 2022 to 2026 cycles. Committee C00799031. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00799031/. Official or primary record.
• Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States House of Representatives. 52 U.S.C. 30116, Limitations on contributions and expenditures. United States Code, Title 52. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title52-section30116. Official or primary record (statute).
• OpenSecrets, 2025. AIPAC PAC contributions to federal candidates, 2024 cycle. OpenSecrets PAC profile, committee C00797670. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/american-israel-public-affairs-cmte/C00797670/candidate-recipients/2024. Campaign-finance aggregator tabulating FEC filings.
• OpenSecrets, 2025. Pro-Israel PACs: contributions to candidates, 2024 cycle. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/industry-detail/Q05/2024. Campaign-finance aggregator tabulating FEC filings.
• OpenSecrets, 2025. United Democracy Project independent expenditures, 2024 cycle. https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2024?cmte=C00799031. Campaign-finance aggregator tabulating FEC filings.
• The Guardian, 2026. Aipac affiliate has funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of Congress members since 7 October. The Guardian, 2 June 2026. Named press analysis of House ethics filings.
• United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026. Lobbying Disclosure Act register: AIPAC registrant record and 2025 quarterly LD-2 reports. Senate ID 2718-12. https://lda.senate.gov/. Official or primary record (self-declared filings).