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Pro-Israel donors have picked a candidate to replace Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago.
Jason Friedman, one of 18 candidates vying to replace Davis in the March Democratic primary next year, has pulled ahead of the pack in fundraising. His campaign reported donations totaling over $1.5 million in its October filing with the Federal Election Commission.
About $140,000 of that money comes from major funders of pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC and its super PAC, United Democracy Project. The two groups spent more than $100 million on elections last year and ousted two leading critics of Israel from Congress. The pro-Israel donors’ support this year is an early sign that Friedman’s race is on AIPAC’s radar.
A former Chicago real estate mogul, Friedman launched his campaign in April, before Davis announced his retirement. From 2019 to 2024, he was chair of government affairs for the Jewish United Fund, a charitable organization that promotes pro-Israel narratives, noting on its website that “Israel does not intentionally target civilians,” “Israel does not occupy Gaza,” and “There is no Israeli ‘apartheid.’” Friedman has not made Israel a part of his campaign platform, but last month, the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, a pro-Israel PAC, held an event for its members to meet him.
AIPAC has not said publicly whether it’s backing a candidate in the race, but more than 35 of its donors have given money to Friedman’s campaign. Among them, 17 have donated to the United Democracy Project, and eight have donated to both. Together, the Friedman donors have contributed just under $2 million to AIPAC and UDP since 2021.
That includes more than $1.6 million to UDP and more than $327,000 to AIPAC, with several donors giving six or five-figure contributions to the PACs. Friedman’s donors have also given $85,500 to DMFI PAC, the political action committee for the AIPAC offshoot Democratic Majority for Israel, and another $115,000 to the pro-Israel group To Protect Our Heritage PAC, which endorsed another candidate in the race, Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. The Conyears-Ervin campaign and To Protect Our Heritage PAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Friedman is running largely on taking on President Donald Trump on issues from health care to education and the economy. His campaign website says he supports strong unions, access to education, reducing gun violence, and job training and support. Prior to his tenure leading his family real estate empire, Friedman worked in politics under former President Bill Clinton and for Sen. Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Reached by phone, the pro-Israel donor Larry Hochberg told The Intercept that he was supporting Friedman because he thought he’d be a good candidate. “I’ll leave it at that,” Hochberg said.
A former AIPAC national director, Hochberg sits on the board of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and co-founded the pro-Israel advocacy group ELNET, which has described itself as the AIPAC of Europe. Hochberg has given $10,000 to AIPAC, $5,000 to DMFI PAC, and just under $30,000 to To Protect Our Heritage PAC. In September, he gave $1,000 to Friedman’s campaign. Asked about his support for AIPAC and DMFI, he told The Intercept: “I don’t think I want to say any more than that.”
Former Rep. Marie Newman, a former target of pro-Israel donors who represented Illinois’s nearby 3rd District and was ousted from Congress in 2022, criticized Friedman for the influx in cash.
“If you receive money from AIPAC donors who believe in genocide and are funding genocide, then in fact, you believe in genocide,” Newman told The Intercept. She’s backing another candidate in the race, gun violence activist Kina Collins, who ran against Davis three times and came within 7 percentage points of unseating him in 2022.
Friedman is running against 17 other Democratic candidates, including Collins and Conyears-Ervin. During Collins’s third run against Davis last year, United Democracy Project spent just under half a million dollars against her. Davis, who received support from a dark-money group aligned with Democratic leaders in his 2022 race, has endorsed state Rep. La Shawn Ford to replace him. Other candidates include former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, former Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, immigrant advocate Anabel Mendoza, organizer Anthony Driver Jr., emergency room doctor Thomas Fisher, and former antitrust attorney Reed Showalter, who has pledged not to accept money from AIPAC.
Friedman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The genocide in Gaza has aggravated fault lines among Democrats in Chicago. Last year, the Chicago City Council narrowly passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting the tie-breaking vote. As chair of government affairs for the Jewish United Fund, Friedman signed a letter to Johnson last year from the group and leaders of Chicago’s Jewish community, saying they were “appalled” at the result. Friedman’s campaign did not respond to questions about his position on U.S. military funding for Israel or the war on Gaza.
At least 17 Friedman donors have given to the United Democracy Project, with contributions totaling over $1.6 million. That includes nine people who gave six-figure contributions to UDP and seven who gave five-figures. Twenty-nine Friedman donors have given to AIPAC PAC, including eight of the same UDP donors.
Among those supporters are gaming executive Greg Carlin, who has given $255,000 to UDP and gave $3,500 to Friedman’s campaign in April; investor Tony Davis, who has given $250,000 to UDP and also gave $3,500 to Friedman’s campaign in April; and attorney Steven Lavin, who has given $125,000 to UDP and gave $7,000 to Friedman’s campaign in June. Carlin, Davis, and Lavin did not respond to a request for comment.
Attorneys Douglas Gessner and Sanford Perl, who work at Friedman’s previous law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, have given $105,000 and $100,000 to UDP. Both have also given to AIPAC PAC: Gessner over $50,000 and Perl over $44,000. Gessner gave $3,000 to Friedman’s campaign in September, and Perl gave $3,400 in April. Gessner and Perl did not respond to requests for comment.
“If you’re taking money from people who are supporting a far right-wing government that is executing a genocide, what does that say about you?”
Three other donors who have each given $1 million to UDP have given to Friedman’s campaign: Miami Beach biotech executive Jeff Aronin, Chicago marketing founder Ilan Shalit, and Jerry Bednyak, a co-founder of Vivid Seats who runs a private equity company focused on e-commerce.
“You could be the nicest person in the world,” said Newman, the former Illinois congresswoman. “But if you’re taking money from people who are supporting a far right-wing government that believes in genocide and is executing a genocide, what does that say about you?”
Friedman’s campaign coffers saw six-figure boosts on three days in June and September — vast outliers compared to most days in his first quarter. Those kinds of fundraising boosts are often associated with a blast email from a supportive political group to its network of donors, according to a Democratic strategist with knowledge of the race. AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment about whether the group had sent such an email encouraging supporters to contribute to Friedman’s campaign.
Friedman’s fundraising boost has also come largely from the finance and real estate industries, where just under a quarter of his donors work. He has also given $36,750 of his own money to his campaign.
