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Looking for more information about the candidates in this race? Check out our previous reporting.
Political Action Committees (PACs) from across the county are spending a nauseating amount of money to influence your vote in the Triangle-area Democratic Congressional primary between Valerie Foushee and Nida Allam.
These PACs operate separately from the candidates themselves and can spend as much money as they want on the mailers and TV, radio, and digital ads that are smothering the district.
And thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, it’s all perfectly legal.
The spending by non-candidate affiliated PACs has dramatically dwarfed the paltry sums spent by the candidates themselves ($354,000 by Allam and $457,000 by Foushee).
There’s some irony here—both Allam and Foushee have criticized the current campaign finance system and promised to reform it, but both have benefited from the lack of limits on outside spending.
When Foushee and Allam faced off in 2022 for this same seat, outside groups poured just over $3.8 million into the race, according to OpenSecrets, with about 90 percent (including pro-Israel and pro-crypto groups) supporting Foushee.
It appears this election cycle could exceed that total; so far INDY has identified $3.95 million in total outside spending (we’re hedging a bit here in case either total is an undercount; outside spending can be quite opaque). Most of that has been spent in the last week.
So who are these PACs and how much are they spending? We dug through their FEC filings and did the math so you don’t have to.
Supporting Allam
- We previously wrote about American Priorities here. Since then, they’ve told NBC that they are trying to counter pro-Israel PACs by supporting candidates “whose views on foreign policy are plainly reflective of where the Democratic base has moved.” That’s a pretty clear reference to Foushee’s 2022 support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other related groups.
- Leaders We Deserve is Gen Z upstart David Hogg’s PAC. Hogg has taken interest in this primary as part of his push to remake the Democratic party from within. “What Nida represents here is the opportunity for us to create real change in our party and send a clear message to establishment Democrats that the days of taking corporate—if you are taking corporate money, your days in power are fucking numbered,” Hogg told attendees of an Allam campaign event in Durham in December. Foushee has criticized Allam for her backing from this group due to its support from billionaire tech investor and gun safety advocate Roy Conway.
- Similarly to Hogg’s group, Justice Democrats is dedicated to “electing the next generation of progressive leaders [who] do not take any corporate PAC or corporate lobbyist money.”
- The Working Families Party is a minor political party that often backs far-left Democrats or independent candidates including in Triangle races.
- The Indian American Impact Fund is a national group that supports progressive Indian and Asian American candidates, and has endorsed Allam.
- The Unity and Justice Fund has some pretty vague priorities but appears to have previously spent to support Zohran Mamdani’s New York campaign.
Supporting Foushee
- Jobs and Democracy is backed by Anthropic, one of the world’s largest AI companies, and has recently become the biggest spender in this race with a series of buys the week before the election. Per our previous reporting, the spending is part of something of an intra-industry civil war between OpenAI and Anthropic, which may be spending on Foushee thanks to her recent appointment as co-chair of the new House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy. Jobs and Democracy has also spent to support Rep. Alexander Bores in New York, and Anthropic has put at least $20 million towards its political operations. Foushee has previously commented on this spending here.
- Article One is raising massive red flags for Allam and her backers, who see it as a way for AIPAC to launder funds to Foushee, who has previously sworn off that funding. It’s not exactly AIPAC money—but Article One is listed as one of a dozen or so affiliates of Article One Victory fund. Allam’s allies have pointed out that billionaire Robert Granieri has donated $345,100 to Article One Victory Fund and Granieri previously donated $250,000 to pro-Israel groups like the United Democracy PAC. He has spent to support, well, a lot of candidates, and he also may have helped fund a coup in South Sudan, so, go figure.
- Rolling SeaAction Fund has upped its support of Foushee recently. The PAC is affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus.
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