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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) launched an appeal for campaign donations this week with a series of ads calling on her supporters to “fight back against AIPAC and its dark money super PAC.” But what makes this particularly notable is the venue where she chose to do it — X/Twitter, which is under fire from so many on the left with calls for an advertising boycott of the platform.
“Can you rush a donation to Ilhan Omar’s re-election campaign right now, and help us have the resources to fight back against AIPAC and its dark money super PAC that is trying to defeat us?” read one paid ad on the social network. “They might have the big bucks, but we have each other, and that is how we’re going to win.”
The ad then quoted a Daily Beast article titled, “The Squad Is Facing an ‘Existential Threat’ in 2024,” which reported that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) “could spend as much as $100 million” to “defeat left-wing incumbents in primaries,” such as Omar.
Another ad read, “URGENT! AIPAC and outside money groups are preparing to spend over $100 MILLION to try to unseat progressives in Congress. We’ve seen this before. We’re not going to let them do this again. Can you rush a contribution and help us have the resources to fight back?”
In August, Jewish Insider reported that AIPAC had “stepped up its recruitment efforts to challenge Democratic incumbents who have clashed with the pro-Israel establishment,” including Omar and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
In response, Omar rolled out a series of ads which accused AIPAC of “working around the clock to unseat Ilhan from Congress” and spending “MILLIONS on attack ads to silence our movement.”
Omar has repeatedly clashed with AIPAC and in 2021 her communications director accused the pro-Israel lobbying group of “putting Rep. Omar’s life at risk with repeated Islamophobic attack ads.”
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