How much did the United Democracy Project spend in specific Senate races during the 2024 cycle and who benefited most?
Executive summary
United Democracy Project (UDP), the AIPAC‑aligned super PAC, spent the bulk of its 2024 cycle money on high‑profile House contests rather than a slate of Senate races, pouring tens of millions into targeted congressional primaries and general contests; available disclosures and reporting show UDP spent more than $35 million on congressional races this cycle and singled out incumbents it deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel, with marquee expenditures against Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush and in support of George Latimer and Wesley Bell [1][2]. The sources reviewed do not provide clear, itemized figures showing major UDP outlays in specific 2024 Senate contests, so any claim that UDP materially reshaped Senate races in 2024 is not supported by the provided reporting.
1. UDP’s scale: fundraising and aggregate outside spending
OpenSecrets and related FEC summaries show UDP operated at a very large scale in 2024 — raising tens of millions and reporting overall outside‑spending totals that made it one of the cycle’s biggest super PACs; OpenSecrets lists cycle fundraising totals in the many‑tens of millions (for example, a UDP raised figure of roughly $87.2 million for the 2023–2024 cycle appears in summaries) and UDP had spent more than $35.6 million on congressional races through reporting cited by OpenSecrets [3][1].
2. Where the money actually landed: House contests dominated UDP’s outlays
Contemporaneous fact‑checking and OpenSecrets coverage document that UDP’s largest, best‑publicized expenditures were in House contests: nearly $9.9 million to oppose Rep. Jamaal Bowman and roughly $4.8 million backing George Latimer in New York, more than $5.2 million against Rep. Cori Bush and another about $3.3 million supporting Wesley Bell in Missouri — figures repeatedly cited in news and FEC summaries as UDP’s headline investments [2][1]. OpenSecrets’ outside‑spending pages and independent‑expenditure indexes corroborate that much of UDP’s independent expenditures targeted specific congressional primaries and incumbents [4][5].
3. Senate spending: what the sources do — and don’t — show
The materials provided and cited here note UDP’s prominence among super PAC spenders in 2024 and mention names of lawmakers in various contexts, but they do not present a clear, line‑by‑line accounting of large UDP independent expenditures in named Senate races comparable to the detailed House figures cited above; OpenSecrets’ cycle summaries and the fact‑check piece emphasize congressional (House) activity as UDP’s primary theater [1][2]. Therefore, based on the reporting supplied, there is insufficient evidence to list specific 2024 Senate races where UDP made major, named expenditures or to quantify such Senate spending with the same confidence as its House spending.
4. Who benefited most: winners, strategic aims and declared beneficiaries
From the disclosed and reported spending patterns, the principal beneficiaries were the candidates UDP supported in targeted House contests — George Latimer and Wesley Bell among them — and, conversely, the incumbents it targeted, like Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who were pressured or defeated in high‑spend primaries; news reporting and FEC‑derived summaries identify those outcomes and link them to UDP’s large expenditures [2][1]. UDP’s agenda is framed in the sources as aligned with AIPAC’s priorities — pressuring Democrats perceived as insufficiently supportive of Israel — which helps explain why its money concentrated on specific vulnerable House Democrats rather than a broad set of Senate targets [1][6].
5. Caveats, transparency gaps and alternative readings
OpenSecrets’ public data and the FEC provide granular spending and donor disclosures, but reporting notes limitations — for instance, UDP’s overall disbursements and donor lists can be complex to parse and some categories (like 24‑ and 48‑hour independent‑expenditure reports) may not be included in summary totals, and aggregations across affiliated PACs and AIPAC’s own accounts complicate attribution [7][3]. Some watchdogs and investigative outlets combine UDP and AIPAC PAC spending to present a fuller picture of influence (for example, analyses that put combined AIPAC/UDP spending near $127 million), an alternative framing that emphasizes institutional influence across channels but still does not supply specific, large UDP line items tied to named Senate contests in the sources provided [6].
6. Bottom line
The best, sourced answer from the reporting at hand: UDP spent tens of millions in the 2024 cycle with its most significant, documented expenditures concentrated on House races — roughly $35.6 million+ on congressional contests overall — and the most concretely identified beneficiaries were House candidates like George Latimer and Wesley Bell (and the corresponding defeats or challenges to Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush) [1][2]. The supplied sources do not substantiate major, specific UDP expenditures in particular Senate races for 2024, so a definitive, sourced list of Senate beneficiaries cannot be produced from this record [1][5].