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Which congressional candidates were the top recipients of AIPAC PAC donations in 2024 and 2022 by amount?
Executive summary
AIPAC’s direct PAC gave tens of millions to federal candidates in 2022 and 2024, with AIPAC reporting more than $17.5 million delivered to congressional candidates in 2022 and more than $53 million in direct support in 2024 across its PAC activities [1] [2]. Independent trackers and reporting identified specific top recipients in each cycle—reporting names and per-candidate totals for 2022 were sparse in the provided materials, while 2024 reporting (including monthly FEC filings) highlights large single-recipient disbursements such as more than $3.1 million to Wesley Bell and a November PAC payment of over $201,000 to Rep. Ritchie Torres [3] [4].
1. What AIPAC’s numbers actually represent — scale, channels and limits
AIPAC’s political activity in these cycles is spread across its hard-money PAC (AIPAC PAC), its super PACs (notably United Democracy Project / UDP), and allied groups; combined spending for the 2023–24 cycle across PAC and super PAC arms has been reported at roughly $100 million to $127 million depending on the accounting used, while direct candidate contributions (hard dollars) from AIPAC PAC were reported as more than $55 million to federal candidates in one compilation [5] [6]. Federal contribution limits mean AIPAC PAC itself can only give up to statutory per-election maximums (FactCheck notes AIPAC PAC cannot exceed $5,000 per election to a candidate) so much of the large-dollar impact comes from bundling donor-designated contributions and from super PAC independent expenditures rather than single enormous checks from the PAC itself [7].
2. Top recipients cited in 2024 reporting — named examples and magnitudes
Reporting in this set of sources identifies several of the largest 2024 recipient episodes: AIPAC PAC gave more than $3.1 million to Wesley Bell’s campaign through July 31, 2024 (with UDP adding substantial independent spending in that race), and FEC filings in late 2023/early 2024 show the PAC routed amounts like more than $201,000 in November to Rep. Ritchie Torres [3] [4]. ReadSludge and related compilations maintained running tallies of AIPAC PAC donations to congressional candidates in 2024 and claimed the PAC was the largest single PAC donor to federal candidates that cycle [8] [6].
3. 2022 top recipients — broader picture, limited granular naming in these sources
AIPAC’s own summary for the 2022 cycle says it delivered more than $17.5 million to pro‑Israel congressional candidates and endorsed 365 candidates, but the provided materials do not include a ranked list of top individual congressional recipients by dollar amount for 2022 within these search results [1]. Independent reporting cited here (e.g., Guardian analysis of pro‑Israel donor flows) says the top six recipients of pro‑Israel donor support in 2022 (across several PACs and donors, not strictly AIPAC PAC alone) were centrist Democrats who collectively took about $25 million from pro‑Israel donors — but the Guardian piece aggregates DMFI, UDP and other pro‑Israel actors together and does not in these excerpts give a straight per-candidate AIPAC-PAC-only ranking [9].
4. Discrepancies between sources and why totals differ
Different outlets count different pools: AIPAC’s own site reports “more than $53 million” in direct support in 2024 while investigative outlets combine AIPAC PAC, UDP, DMFI and related donors to reach $100M+ or $126.9M figures — the discrepancy reflects whether you include super PAC independent expenditures, allied groups’ spending, or only PAC-to-candidate hard dollars [2] [5] [6]. Trackers like ReadSludge and OpenSecrets use FEC line‑item filings and sometimes produce per‑candidate tallies; AIPAC emphasizes endorsed-winner rates and aggregate sums on its site [8] [10].
5. Specific names repeatedly flagged by reporting (2022–24 context)
While the provided material names several prominent recipients or focal races: Wesley Bell (large hard-dollar PAC support plus super PAC spending in 2024), Ritchie Torres (noted as a large November PAC recipient), and a group of centrist Democrats who benefited heavily from pro‑Israel donor activity in 2022 (per Guardian) [3] [4] [9]. Comprehensive per-candidate rankings for each cycle — e.g., “top 10 recipients by dollar amount from AIPAC PAC in 2022 and 2024” — are claimed to exist in trackers like ReadSludge and OpenSecrets, but the exact ranked lists and per-candidate dollar totals are not reproduced in the search-result excerpts provided here [8] [11].
6. What’s missing and how to get a definitive list
Available sources do not include a single, fully enumerated ranked table in these excerpts showing the top congressional recipients by exact dollar amounts for both 2022 and 2024 from AIPAC PAC alone; ReadSludge, OpenSecrets and the AIPAC PAC disclosure pages are the primary places the publicized per-recipient numbers come from and those outlets are referenced in these materials for deeper per-candidate figures [8] [11] [2]. For a definitive ranked list, consult the FEC-formatted recipient tables on OpenSecrets or ReadSludge’s ongoing “top recipients” tracker [11] [8].
Summary judgment: reporting agrees that AIPAC and its allied entities were major financial players in both cycles; specifics about the top individual congressional recipients are available in the referenced trackers (ReadSludge/OpenSecrets/FEC filings), but the excerpts above provide only selective named examples (Wesley Bell, Ritchie Torres) and aggregate totals rather than a finished ranked table in this set of sources [3] [4] [5].