Which US candidates received the most direct AIPAC donations in 2024?
Executive summary
AIPAC’s 2024 political spending was massive and diffuse: the group says it provided more than $53 million in direct support to 361 candidates through its PAC (AIPAC PAC) [1], while investigative reporting counts AIPAC and its allied super PACs and conduits as having funneled well over $100 million into the cycle [2] [3]. Public reporting identifies a handful of named top recipients—most prominently House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose campaign received more than $1 million in earmarked AIPAC PAC donations—yet there is no single, fully transparent ranked list in the provided sources to produce a definitive “top ten” [2] [4].
1. The clearest single top recipient: Hakeem Jeffries received more than $1 million
Multiple investigative reports single out Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as one of the largest direct beneficiaries of AIPAC PAC’s 2023–24 cycle donations, saying the group “flooded his campaign with more than a million dollars in earmarked donations,” even as his office has described only taking the per-cycle maximum directly from the PAC [2] [4] [5].
2. AIPAC’s own accounting: $53 million to 361 candidates, but without a ranked public list
AIPAC’s PAC homepage states the organization “supported 361 pro-Israel Democratic and Republican candidates in 2024 with more than $53 million in direct support” [1]. That figure confirms scale but the AIPAC source does not provide a simple public ranking of which individual candidates received the most direct dollars, leaving journalists to reconstruct totals from Federal Election Commission disclosures and PAC filings [1].
3. Super PAC and allied spending complicates who “received” AIPAC money
Beyond AIPAC PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP) and other allied entities ran independent expenditures and ad campaigns, and investigative tallies combine those spends to measure AIPAC’s influence; Sludge and related outlets report combined AIPAC-affiliated spending approaching $126.9 million in the cycle when PAC and super PAC totals are aggregated [2] [3]. Those independent expenditures often benefit candidates opposing AIPAC’s targets rather than being direct, reportable donations to candidate committees, which muddies any direct “top recipient” ranking [2].
4. Named lower-tier recipients and campaign-targeted spending
Advocacy trackers and opposition projects name other recipients and targets: for instance, ex-Rep. Michael Waltz is listed as having received nearly $250,000 from AIPAC and allies in tracker databases [6]. AIPAC was also reported to have spent a record $45.2 million aiming to defeat progressives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush—an investment that reflects targeted spending against those incumbents rather than straightforward candidate-to-candidate donation tallies [7].
5. Why public figures differ: definitions, channels, and reporting windows
Different outlets use different methods: OpenSecrets separates “pro-Israel PACs” and in one summary totals pro-Israel PAC contributions to federal candidates at about $5.43 million for 2024—a figure that is not directly comparable to AIPAC PAC’s self-reported $53 million or to combined AIPAC/UDP spending tallies because of differing definitions, time windows, and whether independent expenditures are included [8] [1] [2]. Reporters reconstructing “top recipients” must therefore pick whether to count only direct PAC-to-campaign donations, earmarked transfers through conduits, or independent-ad spending that benefits a campaign [5].
6. Bottom line: Hakeem Jeffries is the clearest top recipient; an authoritative ranked list is not present in the sources
Based on the documents provided, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries stands out as the most clearly reported individual to receive more than $1 million directly from AIPAC PAC [2] [4]. AIPAC itself confirms $53 million in direct support to 361 candidates but does not publish a simple public ranking of top recipients; investigative outlets and trackers name other recipients and document far larger combined spending by PACs and super PACs that benefit or oppose particular candidates, which complicates a definitive “most direct donations” list [1] [2] [5]. The available sources do not permit producing a complete, verified ranked roster beyond the named examples without further FEC-file-level compilation.