AIPAC PAC's top recipients include war critics. Cruz's big total was last cycle.

Critics say AIPAC PAC money buys Middle East wars. The 2026 filings and the war-powers roll calls show a messier picture: the top recipients include Democrats who voted to curb the Iran war, a Republican who joined them, and hawks who took little or none.

Federal Election Commission Schedule B aggregates for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Political Action Committee (committee ID C00797670), retrieved November 9, 2026, rank Susan Collins$, Wesley Bell$, Jared Moskowitz, Tom Cotton$ and John Cornyn$ among the largest candidate-committee recipients in the 2026 cycle. Ted Cruz$ is not on that 2026 list. His Senate committee's AIPAC PAC Schedule B total sits in the 2024 cycle, at $726,146.58, because he was not on the ballot in 2026. Critics on the anti-interventionist right and the progressive left still group Cruz with Cotton and other hawks as proof that pro-Israel PAC money and support for the Iran war travel together. The filings allow a test of that claim. They do not, by themselves, prove it.

This story puts AIPAC PAC transmission totals beside Iran war-powers votes and on-record statements. It treats the argument that lawmakers "advocate for wars on Israel's behalf" as a critics' charge, not as a finding. Lawmakers' own words emphasize U.S. national security, Iran's nuclear program and alliance commitments. AIPAC says its donors are Americans and that it is not directed or funded by the Israeli government. U.S. law already bans foreign governments, including Israel, from contributing to federal candidates. For the Cotton case study, see today's Cotton AIPAC and Iran record story. For primary spending against AIPAC critics, see the UDP and Massie report. For the war-powers math, see Congress's Iran war-powers votes. For how to read these records without collapsing categories, see the U.S.–Israel money and ethics guide.

Three money categories that are not interchangeable#

AIPAC PAC contributions and earmarked conduit gifts appear on Schedule B as disbursements from C00797670 to candidate committees. Most of the large totals in this story are earmarked conduit transmissions: individual Americans' gifts that the PAC solicits and forwards, disclosed with earmark memos. A smaller share is the PAC's own limited contributions. The OpenFEC schedule_b/by_recipient aggregate used here sums both for the 2026 two-year period. AIPAC PAC registered with the FEC on December 15, 2021. It did not exist for earlier Iran debates such as Cotton's 2015 letter.

United Democracy Project independent expenditures are separate. UDP (C00799031) is AIPAC's affiliated super PAC. Schedule E spending for or against a candidate is not a contribution to that candidate. This story cites UDP where relevant and does not add IE dollars into AIPAC PAC recipient totals.

OpenSecrets' "Pro-Israel" industry code (Q05) is wider than AIPAC PAC. It mixes PACs and individuals OpenSecrets codes as pro-Israel. It is useful for cycle comparisons and must be labeled as OpenSecrets' categorization. It is not a substitute for FEC AIPAC PAC Schedule B.

Collapsing those three into one "AIPAC donations" or "Israel money" number is what AIPAC's own AIPAC Money page says misleads readers. Critics reply that the network still travels together even when the legal vehicles differ. This article keeps the categories separate.

What the 2026 AIPAC PAC ranking shows#

Excluding payment processors such as Democracy Engine, the largest candidate-committee recipients in the OpenFEC 2026-cycle aggregate opened for this story were:

Susan Collins

$3,358,020

Wesley Bell

$2,301,963

Jared Moskowitz

$1,263,273

Tom Cotton

$1,102,394

John Cornyn

$1,061,278

Dan Sullivan

$986,532

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

$875,809

Ritchie Torres

$855,743

Mike Lawler

$829,771

Ted Cruz (2024 cycle)

$726,147

Cory Booker

$702,091

Brian Fitzpatrick

$440,192

Source: OpenFEC AIPAC PAC by recipient, 2026, OpenFEC AIPAC PAC by recipient, 2024

Show the numbers

Lawmaker	AIPAC PAC total
Susan Collins	$3,358,020
Wesley Bell	$2,301,963
Jared Moskowitz	$1,263,273
Tom Cotton	$1,102,394
John Cornyn	$1,061,278
Dan Sullivan	$986,532
Debbie Wasserman Schultz	$875,809
Ritchie Torres	$855,743
Mike Lawler	$829,771
Ted Cruz (2024 cycle)	$726,147
Cory Booker	$702,091
Brian Fitzpatrick	$440,192

Collins for Senator alone accounts for about $3.36 million across 2,138 Schedule B lines. Bell for Missouri is next at about $2.30 million. Moskowitz, Cotton and Cornyn each clear $1 million. The list mixes parties and chambers. It is not a Republican-only hawk roster.

Cruz's 2024-cycle total of $726,146.58 (779 Schedule B transactions) breaks down by disbursement year as about $287,941 in 2023 and $438,206 in 2024 in the transaction export summed for this story. A parallel Schedule B search for his principal Senate committee (C00492785) in dates from January 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, returned $0. That is expected for a senator whose next election is not in 2026. It is also why a 2026-only ranking that "highlights Cruz" would misstate the cycle. A companion article will inventory Cruz's AIPAC PAC, other pro-Israel PAC and OpenSecrets industry figures across cycles.

War-powers votes next to the money#

Three roll calls anchor the Iran war votes used here.

On March 18, 2026, the Senate rejected a motion to discharge a war-powers measure, 47–53, on vote 58 of the 119th Congress, 2nd session. Cotton, Cruz, Cornyn, Sullivan and Collins voted Nay. Booker voted Yea. Rand Paul$ was the only Republican Yea that day. John Fetterman$ voted Nay with most Republicans.

On May 19, 2026, the Senate voted 50–47 to discharge a related Iran war-powers measure from committee, according to PolitiFact's June 4 explainer. Four Republicans joined Democrats: Collins, Lisa Murkowski$, Paul and Bill Cassidy$. Fetterman again sided with most Republicans. That step was procedural, not final passage.

On June 3, 2026, the House agreed to H. Con. Res. 86 on Roll Call 199, 215–208. The resolution directed the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorized them. Four Republicans voted Yea: Thomas Massie$, Tom Barrett$, Warren Davidson$ and Brian Fitzpatrick$. Every voting Democrat voted Yea, including Bell, Moskowitz, Wasserman Schultz, Torres and Gottheimer. Lawler and Randy Fine$ voted Nay.

Amounts are FEC Schedule B aggregates retrieved November 9, 2026. War-powers cells cite the clerk and Senate XML opened for this story, plus PolitiFact for the May discharge names. Quotes are truncated; full statements are linked.

Cruz, Cotton and the hawk lane#

Cruz's February 28, 2026 statement on U.S. strikes against Iran does not mention donors. He said the Iranian regime had been "terrorizing and murdering Americans for 47 years," that it sought nuclear weapons and the ability to hit the American homeland, and that "Today's action will enhance the national security of the United States and our allies." He thanked Israeli forces "fighting alongside the U.S. on behalf of our mutual interests and against our mutual enemies." On Senate vote 58 he voted Nay, with Cotton and Cornyn.

Cotton's March 18 floor speech, documented in the companion Cotton story, warned that a war-powers resolution would "abandon our Israeli friends" and leave U.S. forces exposed. His AIPAC PAC total in 2026 is larger than Cruz's 2024 total. His public Iran line also predates AIPAC PAC's 2021 registration. Sequence matters for any claim that the PAC rewrote either man's views.

Cornyn publicly backed Operation Epic Fury and later said he supported it because it delayed Iran's path to a nuclear weapon, while questioning terms of a later memorandum of understanding with Iran, according to contemporaneous Texas reporting that quoted both Texas senators. This story uses Cruz's Senate press release as the primary Cruz quotation and treats secondary roundups as pointers, not as substitutes for the FEC and roll-call records.

Democrats who took AIPAC PAC money and voted to curb the war#

If AIPAC PAC money simply purchased Iran-war support, Bell, Moskowitz, Wasserman Schultz, Torres and Booker would be hard cases to explain away. Each appears among the larger Schedule B recipients. Each voted Yea on the June House war-powers resolution or, for Booker, Yea on the March Senate discharge motion. Collins, the single largest recipient in the 2026 aggregate, joined the May Senate discharge that advanced a war-powers measure, even though she voted Nay on the earlier March motion.

Fitzpatrick sharpens the point inside the GOP. His committee took about $440,192 via AIPAC PAC in the 2026 aggregate and still joined Massie, Barrett and Davidson as one of four Republican Yea votes on House Roll Call 199. Trump called those four "GRANDSTANDERS" after the vote, according to PolitiFact's citation of his Truth Social post. Fitzpatrick's receipt total is smaller than Collins's or Cotton's. It is large enough that a simple "AIPAC money equals war vote" rule fails on its face.

Recipients of little or no AIPAC PAC money#

OpenFEC Schedule B searches from C00797670 to Massie's principal committee (C00509729), Rand Paul's Senate committee (C00496075) and Fetterman's committee (C00765800) returned zero transactions in the exports checked November 9, 2026. Massie and Paul are among the loudest congressional critics of unconditional aid and of the Iran war. Fetterman voted with most Republicans against the March discharge despite that $0 AIPAC PAC result. Randy Fine, by contrast, took about $504,790 via AIPAC PAC in the 2026 aggregate and voted Nay on House Roll Call 199 while arguing that war-powers debates embolden Tehran, as quoted in Stars and Stripes.

UDP's millions in independent expenditures against Massie in the Kentucky primary are a different legal category. They are documented in the UDP primaries story. They are not AIPAC PAC contributions to Massie. Massie described outside spending as an effort to "bully" members of Congress, according to Al Jazeera's May 18, 2026 report. That is the critics' incentive argument in its strongest form: punish dissenters with IEs even when PAC conduit totals to allies are the other side of the ledger.

How critics connect the money to the wars#

The critical case does not require a disclosed bribe. It runs on alignment and punishment.

America First Republicans who fought UDP over Massie's primary say pro-Israel PACs and super PACs make skepticism on aid and on Middle East wars politically expensive. Progressive critics make a parallel claim from the left: AIPAC PAC and UDP underwrite a bipartisan consensus that keeps unauthorized wars and unconditional aid harder to challenge. Both camps point to FEC disclosure. Both treat large conduit hauls to Cotton, Cruz, Cornyn and House hawks as relevant evidence. Agreement that the money matters does not make those camps a single movement. Our guide to politicians who reject AIPAC money covers figures who treat refusal as a dividing line.

The phrase "advocate for wars on Israel's behalf" is that critics' framing. It attributes motive. The filings show dollars and dates. The roll calls show votes. Motive is the disputed inference. Funding alone does not prove control, corruption or a policy bargain under U.S. campaign-finance law.

How AIPAC and the hawks answer#

AIPAC's AIPAC Money page calls "AIPAC money" a slogan that singles out Americans who favor a strong U.S.–Israel relationship. It states that AIPAC's members and donors are Americans from both parties, that AIPAC "is not directed or funded by the Israeli government or any foreign source," and that PAC contributions are disclosed through the federal system. It compares pro-Israel donors to environmental, labor and business constituencies.

Cruz's strike statement and Cotton's floor speech locate Iran policy in threat assessment and alliance politics. Marco Rubio and other Republican hawks make a related argument in our America First critics and Rubio report: pressure on Iran and support for Israel can be framed as U.S. national interest. From that view, pro-Israel donors support candidates whose positions were already set, rather than purchasing a war vote after the fact.

Collins's May discharge vote and Fitzpatrick's House Yea are inconvenient for the simplest version of the critics' story. Fetterman's Nay with $0 AIPAC PAC Schedule B is inconvenient for the simplest version of the donors' story. Both inconveniences belong in the record.

What the side-by-side record supports — and what it does not#

The verified record supports these statements:

1. AIPAC PAC transmitted millions of dollars in the 2026 cycle to candidate committees led by Collins, Bell, Moskowitz, Cotton, Cornyn, Sullivan, Wasserman Schultz, Torres, Lawler, Booker and Fitzpatrick, per OpenFEC Schedule B aggregates opened November 9, 2026.
2. Cruz's comparable AIPAC PAC Schedule B total is a 2024-cycle figure of about $726,147, with $0 found for 2025–2026 dates in the Senate-committee export checked for this story.
3. Several large recipients voted to advance or pass Iran war-powers limits (Booker on March 58; Collins on the May discharge; Bell, Moskowitz, Wasserman Schultz, Torres and Fitzpatrick on House Roll Call 199).
4. Massie's and Paul's principal committees show $0 AIPAC PAC Schedule B in the searches used here, while UDP spent heavily against Massie in independent expenditures documented separately.
5. Critics argue the money and hawkish Middle East votes are connected through incentives. AIPAC and the hawks argue the policy came first and that American donors may support candidates who already agree with them.

The record does not support saying, in the site's voice, that these lawmakers advocate for wars on Israel's behalf. It does not show Israeli government funding of their campaigns. It does not show a disclosed bargain trading a contribution for a war vote. Correlation across a war year and a fundraising year is real in the calendar for some senators. Causation remains the disputed step.

Readers who want Cotton's conduit monthly series, the Massie primary IE fight, the House veto math or the public-opinion backdrop on Middle East wars can continue with those linked stories. The comparative case here is narrower: the largest AIPAC PAC recipient totals, Cruz's cycle placement, and the war-powers votes that refuse a one-line moral. For how 567politics treats funding research, see our methodology.

Differing perspectives

Do AIPAC PAC donations explain lawmakers' support for the Iran war?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Money and votes do not line up cleanly

  Who holds it: Lawmakers such as Susan Collins, Brian Fitzpatrick and Cory Booker who took AIPAC PAC money yet backed some war-powers limits

  A third reading stresses the mismatches in the same FEC and roll-call records. Collins led the 2026 AIPAC PAC recipient list and still joined the May Senate discharge. Fitzpatrick took hundreds of thousands via AIPAC PAC and was one of four Republicans to vote yes on the June House war-powers resolution. Booker took more than $700,000 and voted yea on the March Senate discharge. Those cases undercut any one-line claim that AIPAC PAC totals dictate Iran war votes.

  In their words: PolitiFact war-powers vote explainer ↗

• No: policy records and votes came first

  Who holds it: Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Tom Cotton and Republican allies who defend Iran hawks

  Cruz's February 2026 strike statement frames the Iran campaign as national security against a regime that has murdered Americans for decades and sought nuclear weapons. Cotton's March floor speech warns that war-powers limits would abandon Israel and leave U.S. forces exposed. Allies note Cotton's 2015 Iran letter predates AIPAC PAC. On this reading, donors support senators whose views were already set rather than buying war votes after the fact.

  In their words: Office of Sen. Ted Cruz ↗

• Treat it as ordinary American issue giving

  Who holds it: AIPAC and donors who fund AIPAC PAC

  AIPAC says "AIPAC money" is a slogan that singles out Americans who favor a strong U.S.–Israel relationship. It states that its donors are Americans from both parties, that it is not directed or funded by the Israeli government and that PAC giving is disclosed like labor, business or environmental constituencies. From this view, Schedule B totals show constituency support, not foreign control or proof that donations caused war votes.

  In their words: AIPAC explanation of political giving ↗

• Yes: the money rewards Middle East hawks

  Who holds it: Thomas Massie, America First critics of AIPAC and progressive opponents of AIPAC spending

  Critics argue that large AIPAC PAC conduit hauls and allied UDP independent expenditures reward members who back hard lines on Iran and Israel and punish dissenters. Massie described pro-Israel outside spending in his Kentucky primary as an effort to bully members of Congress. From this view, Cotton's, Cruz's and Cornyn's receipts sit inside the same incentive system that makes war-powers limits and aid skepticism costly in both parties.

  In their words: Al Jazeera reporting on Massie's comments ↗

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