<\/p>\n
As the Democratic Party<\/span> establishment consolidates around a former Republican they hope can flip a key Arizona congressional seat, super PACs are spreading their resources across candidates in the district\u2019s upcoming Democratic primary \u2014 and three of the top spenders have ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n Marlene Gal\u00e1n-Woods, who was a registered Republican until 2018 and is the widow of the state\u2019s former Republican attorney general, picked up the endorsement of the Democrats\u2019 powerful House campaign arm in May, raising eyebrows<\/a> in a cycle dominated by anti-establishment sentiment. One of the three main super PACs spending in the Democratic primary for Arizona\u2019s 1st Congressional District is backing her, while another is touting businessman Jonathan Treble as \u201cthe only lifelong Democrat\u201d in the race. All three PACs are opposing the district\u2019s former Democratic nominee Amish Shah, whose critics point out that he briefly registered<\/a> as a Republican to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. (He\u2019s said he thought it would help boost Hillary Clinton.)<\/p>\n The finger-pointing in the toss-up district suggests that candidates are walking a line between touting their abilities to work with Republicans and distancing themselves from the GOP before Democratic voters pick their nominee next Tuesday. Democrats consider the district \u2014 which includes wealthy exurbs northeast of Phoenix whose residents are mostly white and around 20 percent Hispanic \u2014 an example of a true median among voters and a bellwether for other competitive races.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s what I call the old playbook,\u201d said Rick McCartney, another Democratic candidate in the race, referring to the Democrats\u2019 choice of a former Republican to appeal to swing-district voters. McCartney, himself a former Republican who mentioned his own ability to work with all parties, said it\u2019s reasonable for people to question whether they align with a party\u2019s values, but it\u2019s also reasonable for voters to want transparency. Navigating both can be tricky.<\/p>\n For Gal\u00e1n-Woods, the balancing act rests in part on her commitment to reproductive rights. Of just under $3 million in outside spending on the primary this cycle, more than a half a million came from Pro-Choice Majority Action, which formed in May and says it works to elect women who support abortion. The PAC is primarily funded by its affiliate, the Democratic group EDW Action Fund, which received $1 million<\/a> from United Democracy Project \u2014 AIPAC\u2019s<\/a> affiliated super PAC<\/a> \u2014 in the spring. The PAC for Democratic Majority for Israel<\/a> also gave $37,750 to EDW Action in April.<\/p>\n Abortion is a critical issue in Arizona, where voters passed a constitutional amendment codifying it as a right in 2024. Gal\u00e1n-Woods\u2019s major backers are a mix of the Democratic establishment, women\u2019s rights organizations, and pro-Israel interests. In addition to Pro-Choice Majority Action and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which gave Gal\u00e1n-Woods its biggest investment on primary ads so far this cycle, she\u2019s backed by EMILY\u2019s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the PAC for Democratic Majority for Israel, and BOLD PAC, the campaign arm for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.<\/p>\n Lenny Young, a spokesperson for Pro-Choice Majority Action, said he wasn\u2019t at liberty to discuss the group\u2019s conversations with its partners, but it doesn\u2019t pick candidates based on Israel policy. \u201cCorrelation is not causation,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe support women. And our priority is women who can help us take back the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMarlene is a mother and a grandmother, who will never back down from defending reproductive freedom and stand up to any effort to strip away fundamental rights,\u201d said EMILY\u2019s List spokesperson Amelia Fox. Her critics point out that before she left the GOP in 2018 \u2014 saying<\/a> it was \u201cdriven off a cliff\u201d by President Donald Trump \u2014 Gal\u00e1n-Woods long voted for anti-abortion Republicans, including former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed into law several of the nation\u2019s most extreme abortion bans in the early 2010s; former Arizona Sen. and presidential candidate John McCain; and former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gal\u00e1n-Woods\u2019s campaign declined to comment.<\/p>\n Treble\u2019s deep-pocketed supporters, meanwhile, are lifting up the businessman as the only truly committed Democrat in the primary race. He\u2019s backed by a super PAC called Crush MAGA, which has spent over half a million dollars opposing Shah and backing Treble, and says it\u2019s focused on opposing Trump and his allies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJonathan Treble is the only lifelong Democrat in this race, and the candidate best prepared to win this critical seat in November,\u201d Crush MAGA spokesperson Sophie Mestas told The Intercept. \u201cCrush MAGA is committed to electing strong Democratic leaders who stand up to Trump, protect the right to vote, and defend our fundamental freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n Save Democracy PAC has used another PAC, Crush MAGA, as a vehicle to target progressive candidates in other primaries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n But Crush MAGA, too, is an affiliate of a PAC that received<\/a> $100,000 from AIPAC\u2019s United Democracy Project. That group, Save Democracy PAC \u2014 which backs Democrats and says it wants to get big money out of politics and protect the right to vote \u2014 has used Crush MAGA as a vehicle to target progressive candidates in other primaries. Save Democracy PAC, also known as SD PAC, has given directly to Democratic candidates this cycle but has spent little so far on primaries. Most of its independent expenditures in previous cycles were made during the general election.<\/p>\n Treble, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said he launched his campaign to fight for Medicare for All after he almost died from a vascular brain growth two years ago<\/a>. His critics have pointed out<\/a> that he did not vote in recent elections and did not register in Arizona until 2025, after moving there in 2022. He runs a company that sells printers and coffee machines to offices and has self-funded his campaign to the tune of $2.3 million, making him the top fundraiser in the race with $4 million in total. Gal\u00e1n-Woods is in second with $2.2 million, followed by Shah with $1.8 million, and McCartney with $1.3 million.<\/p>\n The outside spender in the race isn\u2019t explicitly backing any candidate. BOLD America \u2014 which was founded by former Congressional Hispanic Caucus members and supported New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat before he lost his primary last month to a democratic socialist challenger<\/a> \u2014 has spent just under $1 million opposing Shah. <\/p>\n In May, BOLD America received $650,000<\/a> from UDP.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson for United Democracy Project said, \u201cUDP has no involvement in any way in AZ-1.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a tough<\/span> midterm cycle for the Democratic establishment and some of the PACs that have emerged to prop it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pro-Choice Majority Action spent $1.5 million to help outgoing Rep. Diana DeGette<\/a>\u2019s campaign before she lost to democratic socialist Melat Kiros in the June primary in Denver, Colorado. It backed Jasmeet Bains, who lost to progressive Randy Villegas<\/a> in California; Julie Johnson<\/a>, who lost to Collin Allred in Texas; and Shannon Bird, who lost to Manny Rutinel<\/a> in Colorado. Two more of its candidates \u2014 Connie Chan<\/a> and Melissa Hernandez \u2014 came in second in their California primaries and are headed to runoff elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crush MAGA PAC has had more mixed results. In California, the group spent against Ammar Campa-Najjar and in favor of Lauren Babb Tomlinson, both of whom lost. In addition to spending against Shah, the group also launched ads last week against progressive Will Lawrence in Michigan that attacked him for having a savings account<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n