What is aipac spending in Ohio state elections
Executive summary
Contemporary reporting shows AIPAC poured unprecedented sums into the 2023–24 election cycle nationally—more than $100 million across PACs and allied super PACs—but the public record in the provided reporting finds no clear, documented AIPAC expenditures targeted at Ohio state-level races during that cycle; several investigations even say AIPAC spent in every state except Ohio in 2024 while still funding Ohio federal candidates in 2023 [1] [2] [3]. The conclusion: based on the sources supplied, there is no definitive figure for AIPAC spending in Ohio state elections, and available reporting points to little or no direct AIPAC outlay at the state-race level in Ohio for the 2024 cycle [2] [4].
1. What the reporting actually documents about AIPAC’s overall spending
Investigations by multiple outlets document that AIPAC transformed into an election spender in 2022–24, with combined PAC and super PAC disbursements that different outlets place above $100 million for the cycle—Sludge and others cite AIPAC PACs plus the United Democracy Project and affiliated entities as surpassing the $100 million mark [1] [5] [6], and outlets report large independent expenditures and earmarked donations routed through PAC structures [1] [3].
2. What the sources say (and do not say) about Ohio state races
Detailed mappings of AIPAC’s money trail show heavy activity in battleground federal races nationwide but, according to The Intercept’s tracking, AIPAC “spent this year on races in every state except Ohio” for the 2024 cycle—though that same reporting notes the group had funded several Ohio candidates in 2023, indicating federal rather than state-focused involvement [2]. Local outlets in Ohio reviewed AIPAC’s activity in the state context but primarily discuss contributions to and influence on federal candidates and partisan contests rather than documented independent expenditures in Ohio state legislative or statewide contests [3] [7].
3. How AIPAC routes money—and why that complicates finding a single Ohio state figure
AIPAC’s PAC is legally constrained to small direct contributions to candidates, but donors can earmark larger sums through the PAC and through affiliated super PACs like the United Democracy Project, producing large independent expenditures that are sometimes routed through intermediary groups—reporting emphasizes these mechanisms as central to the group’s electoral influence [3] [1]. That architecture creates multiple lines of spending—direct PAC donations, super PAC independent expenditures, and payments routed through allied groups—making a simple state-by-state tabulation difficult without granular FEC or state-level disclosure scrutiny [1] [6].
4. Conflicting signals: Ohio federal versus state-level activity
While Intercept reporting says AIPAC did not spend in Ohio in 2024 proper, other pieces note AIPAC-funded activity involving Ohio candidates in 2023 and note that AIPAC and affiliated committees have been active in federal House races and in backing or opposing members of Congress [2] [8]. OpenSecrets vendor records in the provided search show zero reported vendor payments to “Aipac” for the 2024 cycle in candidate expenditure filings, underscoring how reporting and raw disclosure data can present different pictures depending on what entity or line item is queried [4] [9].
5. Data limits, verification steps, and where to look next
The supplied reporting does not include a definitive, line-by-line Ohio state election spending table for AIPAC or its affiliates; the Ohio Secretary of State’s campaign finance portal is the primary public repository for state-level disclosures and should be queried for independent-expenditure filings and committee activity in Ohio races, while FEC/OpenSecrets and Sludge provide federal-level breakdowns and super PAC totals [10] [9] [6]. Given AIPAC’s complex use of affiliated groups, the only reliable way to confirm state-level spending is to cross-check Ohio campaign finance disclosures against FEC filings and independent-expenditure reports for named AIPAC-affiliated committees such as the United Democracy Project and DMFI [1] [6].