Progressives successfully used AIPAC as a cudgel against incumbents who had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash from the group, further proving its use as a bogeyman in Democratic primaries across the map this year as the party confronts rising backlash to Israel and dark-money influence in its politics. And they latched onto the possibility that United Democracy Project was involved with a pair of PACs that were playing in the New York races, turning it into an attack line and rallying cry.

At Valdez’s victory party in Brooklyn, the crowd erupted in a “fuck AIPAC” chant as Goldman’s concession speech in a nearby district played across television screens at the venue. Avila Chevalier told her supporters: “We know how scared we made AIPAC.” The crowd at one point began chanting “free, free Palestine.”

Lander railed against AIPAC and other dark-money spending in his victory speech and said Democrats “have to face up to” their divides over Israel.

“Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake,” Lander said of the former president’s uneasy alignment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the country invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Some Democrats believe that may have doomed their ticket in the 2024 presidential election.

“I believe it made us complicit in genocide. Bombs we paid for killed more than seventy thousand Palestinians — most of them women and children. Tanks we paid for left a million people homeless. Humanitarian aid still is not getting in.” Lander said.

Lander also nodded to rising antisemitism, saying that progressives “need to be the people who are standing against this, not looking away from it.”

Goldman acknowledged the Israel-Palestinian conflict played an “outsized role” in his race while speaking to reporters after his concession speech. He accused Lander of using “dangerous antisemitic tropes” to win — echoing some Jewish Democrats’ concerns about how progressives’ criticism of Israel could alienate Jewish voters the party has long counted as one of its core constituencies. Some Jewish Democrats also accused Mamdani, a staunch Israel critic who endorsed all three of Tuesday’s Israel-critical victors, of promoting antisemitic tropes after he said AIPAC moved “millions in dark money … to preserve their power” in the closing days of the campaign.

“Jews have given back so much to this country. As history has taught us, antisemitic tropes and stereotypes, some of which I heard personally on this campaign, will ultimately be the undoing of our democracy if we all don’t lean in and speak out — even if it’s not politically expedient,” Goldman warned in his speech. “The Democratic Party has always been at its strongest when it has welcomed a broad coalition of voices united by those shared democratic values of equal rights, social justice, human rights.”

The Democratic shift away from Israel is not uniform. Micah Lasher, a Jewish Democrat who won the contentious primary to succeed Jerry Nadler with the retiring representative’s endorsement, has said he would not support legislation banning weapons sales to Israel.

And in Maryland, state Del. Adrian Boafo won the race to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer, a staunch Israel advocate and AIPAC ally. Boafo, Hoyer’s former campaign manager and his preferred successor, was buoyed by $5.7 million in spending by United Democracy Project. He had called to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship, but was also critical of Netanyahu. Notably, UDP’s ads in that race focused on issues other than Israel — a pattern that has played across its ad strategy in many other contests.

AIPAC, in a statement, said Boafo has “made clear his vision to carry forward the strong pro-Israel legacy of Congressman Steny Hoyer.” The group commended a slate of pro-Israel incumbents who won less competitive contests across New York, Maryland and Utah.