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Pro-Israel donors have<\/span> picked a candidate to replace Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago.<\/p>\n Jason Friedman, one of 18 candidates vying to replace Davis in the March Democratic primary next year, has pulled ahead of the pack in fundraising. His campaign reported donations totaling over $1.5 million in its October filing with the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n About $140,000 of that money comes from major funders of pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC and its super PAC, United Democracy Project. The two groups spent more than $100 million<\/a> on elections last year and ousted<\/a> two leading critics<\/a> of Israel from Congress<\/a>. The pro-Israel donors\u2019 support this year is an early sign that Friedman\u2019s race is on AIPAC\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n A former Chicago real estate mogul<\/a>, Friedman launched<\/a> his campaign in April, before Davis announced<\/a> his retirement. From 2019 to 2024, he was chair of government affairs for the Jewish United Fund, a charitable organization that promotes pro-Israel narratives, noting on its website<\/a> that \u201cIsrael does not intentionally target civilians,\u201d \u201cIsrael does not occupy Gaza,\u201d and \u201cThere is no Israeli \u2018apartheid.\u2019\u201d Friedman has not made Israel a part of his campaign platform, but last month, the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, a pro-Israel PAC, held an event<\/a> for its members to meet him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AIPAC has not said publicly whether it\u2019s backing a candidate in the race, but more than 35 of its donors have given money to Friedman\u2019s campaign. Among them, 17 have donated to the United Democracy Project, and eight <\/strong>have donated to both. Together, the Friedman donors have contributed just under $2 million to AIPAC and UDP since 2021. <\/p>\n That includes more than $1.6 million to UDP and more than $327,000 to AIPAC, with several donors giving six or five-figure contributions to the PACs. Friedman\u2019s donors have also given $85,500 to DMFI PAC, the political action committee for the AIPAC offshoot Democratic Majority for Israel<\/a>, and another $115,000 to the pro-Israel group To Protect Our Heritage PAC, which endorsed another candidate in the race, Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. The Conyears-Ervin campaign and To Protect Our Heritage PAC did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Friedman is running largely on taking on President Donald Trump<\/a> on issues from health care to education and the economy. His campaign website says he supports strong unions, access to education, reducing gun violence, and job training and support. <\/strong>Prior to his tenure leading his family real estate empire, Friedman worked in politics under former President Bill Clinton and for Sen. Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n Reached by phone, the pro-Israel donor Larry Hochberg told The Intercept that he was supporting Friedman because he thought he\u2019d be a good candidate. \u201cI\u2019ll leave it at that,\u201d Hochberg said. <\/p>\n A former AIPAC national director, Hochberg sits on the board of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces<\/a> and co-founded the pro-Israel advocacy group ELNET<\/a>, which has described itself as the AIPAC of Europe. Hochberg has given $10,000 to AIPAC, $5,000 to DMFI PAC, and just under $30,000 to To Protect Our Heritage PAC. In September, he gave $1,000 to Friedman\u2019s campaign. Asked about his support for AIPAC and DMFI, he told The Intercept: \u201cI don\u2019t think I want to say any more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Rep. Marie Newman, a former target<\/a> of pro-Israel donors who represented Illinois\u2019s nearby 3rd District and was ousted<\/a> from Congress in 2022, criticized Friedman for the influx in cash.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you receive money from AIPAC donors who believe in genocide and are funding genocide, then in fact, you believe in genocide,\u201d Newman told The Intercept. She\u2019s backing another candidate in the race, gun violence activist Kina Collins, who ran against Davis three times and came within 7 percentage points of unseating him in 2022.<\/p>\n Friedman is running against 17 other Democratic candidates, including <\/strong>Collins and Conyears-Ervin. During Collins\u2019s third run against Davis last year, United Democracy Project spent just under half a million dollars<\/a> against her. Davis, who received support from a dark-money group<\/a> aligned with Democratic leaders in his 2022 race, has endorsed state Rep. La Shawn Ford to replace him. Other candidates include former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, former Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, immigrant advocate Anabel Mendoza, organizer Anthony Driver Jr., emergency room doctor Thomas Fisher, and former antitrust attorney Reed Showalter, who has pledged not to accept money from AIPAC.<\/p>\n Friedman\u2019s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n