Which House primaries were the primary targets of United Democracy Project spending in 2024 and how much was spent on each?
Executive summary
2024-house-primaries">United Democracy Project concentrated its 2024 outside spending on Democratic primaries, most notably the New York 16th District (Jamaal Bowman’s primary) and Missouri’s 1st District (Cori Bush’s primary), pouring multi‑million dollar ad buys into both contests; reporting shows UDP spent roughly nine‑plus million dollars backing primary challengers in each district while also running millions in opposition ads, and overall UDP’s cycle activity totals tens of millions [1] [2] [3].
1. The headline targets: NY-16 and MO-1, and the scale of the buys
Multiple trackers and industry analyses identify the two most prominent House primary targets of UDP in 2024 as NY‑16 (Jamaal Bowman’s seat) and MO‑1 (Cori Bush’s seat), with UDP accounting for more than $9 million in support for the primary challengers in each of those races according to ad‑spending analysis [1]. Industry tallies show NY‑16 became the most expensive House primary ever (roughly $25.4 million total spending), and MO‑1 was also extraordinarily costly (about $19.4 million total), with UDP’s seven‑ and eight‑figure ad blitzes singled out as a major driver [1].
2. Support versus opposition: how UDP split its dollars
FactCheck.org parses UDP’s activity as heavily focused inside the Democratic Party: the group “spent nearly $12.4 million supporting some Democratic candidates, while spending more than $20 million opposing other Democrats” in 2024, a dynamic that makes the PAC’s role as both backer and attacker central to its strategy [2]. That pattern explains how UDP could both bankroll challengers in NY‑16 and simultaneously run opposition ads against incumbents like Cori Bush — the operation mixes pro‑candidate and anti‑incumbent buys to reshape primaries [2] [1].
3. The Cori Bush example: opposition buys quantified
Reporting zeroes in on UDP’s campaign against Representative Cori Bush: FactCheck reports UDP “spent more than $5.2 million against Democratic Rep. Cori Bush,” an expenditure that coincided with a broader ad strategy and helped make MO‑1 one of the costliest primaries of 2024 [2]. Ad‑spending analyses complement that figure by tying the super PAC’s support for Bush’s primary challenger to a multi‑million dollar media push, with overall UDP involvement in the district measured in the high single‑digit millions [1] [2].
4. The Bowman race and NY‑16’s ad environment
NY‑16’s primary was marked as the most expensive House primary in 2024, with total spending around $25.4 million; ad‑spend research attributes a substantial slice of backing for Bowman’s primary opponent to UDP’s six‑to‑nine‑figure television and digital buys, again placing UDP among the largest outside actors in that contest [1]. FactCheck also lists the New York race among the key Democratic primaries UDP targeted, consistent with the ad‑tracking totals [2] [1].
5. UDP’s aggregate footprint and competing tallies
Different datasets present complementary portraits of UDP’s scale: OpenSecrets records UDP’s fundraising and detailed expenditure records and lists targeted candidates (summaries and candidate‑level tables are available through its tracker) and notes large sums raised by the committee in the cycle [4] [5]. KQED and other outlets report UDP increased its 2024 targeting spending to roughly $37 million in the cycle, and watchdog analyses and ad‑data firms cite roughly $37.9 million in independent expenditures for House contests attributable to the group’s related network — figures that underscore a broad, multi‑tens‑of‑millions operation behind the highlighted primaries [3] [6].
6. Caveats, differing measures and what is missing
The precise dollar figures for “spent on each” vary by source and methodology: FactCheck separates support versus opposition totals (nearly $12.4M supporting, >$20M opposing) while ad‑tracking firms report line‑item ad buys in districts (UDP “over $9M” supporting challengers in NY‑16 and MO‑1) and investigative outlets compile larger combined totals across AIPAC’s ecosystem [2] [1] [6]. Public FEC and OpenSecrets candidate‑level tables provide the raw independent‑expenditure filings necessary to reconcile divergences, but the provided reporting highlights NY‑16 and MO‑1 as the clearest, best‑documented UDP primary targets and places UDP’s spending in those races at roughly the high single‑digit millions each, with additional millions spent in opposition ads elsewhere [7] [4] [5].