Kevin’s Journal: Breaking Down Who is Funding Our Primaries

During the 2026 primary in Illinois, a lot of outside influences came through our state. Progressives like Kat Abughazaleh, for example, running on a traditionally popular platform in the 9th district, were attacked for an “anti-Israel” policy after speaking out against the genocide in Gaza. Abughazaleh’s platform even specifically noted “ending Antisemitism” as a policy goal.

These influences are coming into our state by the way of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) related PACs. AIPAC is Israel’s way of involving itself in our politics and has strong support in older Jewish communities. Some of the PACs have deceiving names like Affordable Chicago Now and Elect Chicago Women. 

In that same election was Laura Fine. According to her financial records, she received $2.2 million from Elect Chicago Women. WBEZ notes, “At least 984, or 67%, of her individual donors by the start of this year had contributed to AIPAC or UDP.” 86% of those donors also lived out of state.

The AIPAC-linked donors accounted for 73% of her $1.9 million in total receipts. Since 2021, the donors and their immediate family members have given more than $46 million to those pro-Israel committees.” 

This shows that while an organization may seem harmless at a surface-level glance, it can create a lot more problems than it may seem.

Receiving money from a certain group does not always mean a politician is bought, but in Fine’s case, responses to a WBEZ poll of Illinois candidates show that PACs had at least a bit of influence on her policy and ability to govern.

The chart that describes the 9th district’s candidates shows Fine as somebody without a strong stance for or against AIPAC. She did not respond to the questions directly, but referenced her donors also supporting various PACs, and used the poll as an opportunity to attack other candidates.

This is not the only race in Illinois where PACs were a problem this cycle. In the race for the senate there were advertisements that were run, spreading lies about the candidates, and Juliana Stratton was hit the hardest with some of the attacks, claiming she would not do enough to fight ICE, which she fought against that accusation on many occasions.

Another candidate in the race, Raja Krishnamoorthi, has tried to distance himself from being tagged as pro-ICE, but his voting record clearly shows him thanking ICE and expanding its funding. He also raised money from Trump-associated donors and even from Palantir, which allows ICE to use their data to track citizens.

Not all PACs are bad of course, some are associated with unions, civil rights issues (women’s rights, and advancement of rights for minorities), and expanding healthcare. If you want to know if you should vote for a candidate look through their financial records and see what types of PACs are donating to them.

I realize this could be extreme to do with every candidate for every election, but if a candidate’s voting record does not tell you enough about them, doing this is helpful.

Next time you vote, do not fall for the same tricks the politicians of today are using. The way we can fight this type of behavior is by fighting against it and not voting for a candidate backed by suspicious PACs, even if they “hold our values.”