{"schema_version":1,"citation_url":"https://567politics.com/news/aipac-pac-top-recipients-iran-war-powers-votes-cruz-collins-november-2026","title":"AIPAC PAC's top recipients include war critics. Cruz's big total was last cycle.","description":"FEC Schedule B ranks Collins, Bell and Moskowitz atop 2026 AIPAC PAC totals. Cruz's $726,147 was in 2024. War-powers votes cut across the money.","author":"567 Politics staff","publisher":"567politics","date_published":"2026-11-09T20:42:11.328583Z","date_modified":"2026-11-09T20:42:47.900179Z","body_markdown":"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.\n\nFederal Election Commission Schedule B aggregates for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Political Action Committee (committee ID [C00797670](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00797670/?cycle=2026)), retrieved November 9, 2026, rank [Susan Collins](/politicians/susan-collins), [Wesley Bell](/politicians/wesley-bell), [Jared Moskowitz](/politicians/jared-moskowitz), [Tom Cotton](/politicians/tom-cotton) and [John Cornyn](/politicians/john-cornyn) among the largest candidate-committee recipients in the 2026 cycle. [Ted Cruz](/politicians/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.\n\nThis 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](/news/tom-cotton-aipac-donations-iran-war-record-november-2026). For primary spending against AIPAC critics, see the [UDP and Massie report](/news/aipac-udp-republican-primaries-massie-fec-spending-november-2026). For the war-powers math, see [Congress's Iran war-powers votes](/news/congress-iran-war-powers-votes-massie-rubio-veto-math-november-2026). For how to read these records without collapsing categories, see the [U.S.–Israel money and ethics guide](/news/us-israel-political-money-lobbying-ethics-evidence-guide-november-2026).\n\n## Three money categories that are not interchangeable\n\n**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.\n\n**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.\n\n**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.\n\nCollapsing those three into one \"AIPAC donations\" or \"Israel money\" number is what AIPAC's own [AIPAC Money page](https://www.aipac.org/aipac-money) says misleads readers. Critics reply that the network still travels together even when the legal vehicles differ. This article keeps the categories separate.\n\n## What the 2026 AIPAC PAC ranking shows\n\nExcluding payment processors such as Democracy Engine, the largest candidate-committee recipients in the OpenFEC 2026-cycle aggregate opened for this story were:\n\n```chart\ntype: bar\ntitle: AIPAC PAC Schedule B totals to selected candidate committees, 2026 cycle\nprefix: $\nnote: OpenFEC schedule_b/by_recipient for committee C00797670, cycle 2026, retrieved Nov. 9, 2026. Totals include earmarked conduit transmissions and PAC contributions. Cruz figure is the 2024-cycle by_recipient total (he was not a 2026 ballot candidate). Democracy Engine and party committees omitted.\nsource: [OpenFEC AIPAC PAC by recipient, 2026](https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/by_recipient/?committee_id=C00797670&cycle=2026), [OpenFEC AIPAC PAC by recipient, 2024](https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/by_recipient/?committee_id=C00797670&cycle=2024)\n---\nLawmaker | AIPAC PAC total\nSusan Collins | 3358020\nWesley Bell | 2301963\nJared Moskowitz | 1263273\nTom Cotton | 1102394\nJohn Cornyn | 1061278\nDan Sullivan | 986532\nDebbie Wasserman Schultz | 875809\nRitchie Torres | 855743\nMike Lawler | 829771\nTed Cruz (2024 cycle) | 726147\nCory Booker | 702091\nBrian Fitzpatrick | 440192\n```\n\nCollins 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.\n\nCruz'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.\n\n## War-powers votes next to the money\n\nThree roll calls anchor the Iran war votes used here.\n\nOn **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](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=119&session=2&vote=00058). Cotton, Cruz, Cornyn, Sullivan and Collins voted **Nay**. Booker voted **Yea**. Rand Paul was the only Republican **Yea** that day. [John Fetterman](/politicians/john-fetterman) voted **Nay** with most Republicans.\n\nOn **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](https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/jun/04/war-powers-vote-house-senate-iran/). Four Republicans joined Democrats: Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Paul and Bill Cassidy. Fetterman again sided with most Republicans. That step was procedural, not final passage.\n\nOn **June 3, 2026**, the House agreed to [H. Con. Res. 86](https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026199) on [Roll Call 199](https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026199), **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](/politicians/thomas-massie), Tom Barrett, Warren Davidson and [Brian Fitzpatrick](/politicians/brian-fitzpatrick). Every voting Democrat voted **Yea**, including Bell, Moskowitz, Wasserman Schultz, Torres and Gottheimer. Lawler and [Randy Fine](/politicians/randy-fine) voted **Nay**.\n\n| Lawmaker | AIPAC PAC total | Key war-powers vote | On-record line |\n| --- | ---: | --- | --- |\n| Susan Collins | $3,358,020 (2026) | May discharge Yea; Mar. 58 Nay | Joined three GOP senators on May discharge ([PolitiFact](https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/jun/04/war-powers-vote-house-senate-iran/)) |\n| Wesley Bell | $2,301,963 (2026) | House 199 Yea | House clerk Roll Call 199 |\n| Jared Moskowitz | $1,263,273 (2026) | House 199 Yea | House clerk Roll Call 199 |\n| Tom Cotton | $1,102,394 (2026) | Senate 58 Nay | \"Iran had already loaded and cocked the gun\" ([Cotton floor speech](https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/speeches/floor-speech-opposing-war-powers-resolution/)) |\n| John Cornyn | $1,061,278 (2026) | Senate 58 Nay | Backed Operation Epic Fury; later wary of Iran MOU terms (public statements) |\n| Dan Sullivan | $986,532 (2026) | Senate 58 Nay | Senate roll call 58 |\n| Debbie Wasserman Schultz | $875,809 (2026) | House 199 Yea | House clerk Roll Call 199 |\n| Ritchie Torres | $855,743 (2026) | House 199 Yea | House clerk Roll Call 199 |\n| Mike Lawler | $829,771 (2026) | House 199 Nay | House clerk Roll Call 199 |\n| Ted Cruz | $726,147 (2024) | Senate 58 Nay | Strikes \"enhance the national security of the United States and our allies\" ([Cruz statement](https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-statement-on-us-strikes-against-the-iranian-regime)) |\n| Cory Booker | $702,091 (2026) | Senate 58 Yea | Senate roll call 58 |\n| Brian Fitzpatrick | $440,192 (2026) | House 199 Yea | One of four Republicans on House passage |\n\nAmounts 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.\n\n## Cruz, Cotton and the hawk lane\n\nCruz's February 28, 2026 [statement on U.S. strikes against Iran](https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-statement-on-us-strikes-against-the-iranian-regime) 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.\n\nCotton's March 18 floor speech, documented in the [companion Cotton story](/news/tom-cotton-aipac-donations-iran-war-record-november-2026), 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.\n\nCornyn 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.\n\n## Democrats who took AIPAC PAC money and voted to curb the war\n\nIf 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.\n\nFitzpatrick 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.\n\n## Recipients of little or no AIPAC PAC money\n\nOpenFEC 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](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-06-03/house-vote-passes-war-powers-iran-21865894.html).\n\nUDP's millions in independent expenditures against Massie in the Kentucky primary are a different legal category. They are documented in the [UDP primaries story](/news/aipac-udp-republican-primaries-massie-fec-spending-november-2026). 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](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/18/massie-race-breaks-spending-record-as-pro-israel-groups-target-trump-critic). 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.\n\n## How critics connect the money to the wars\n\nThe critical case does not require a disclosed bribe. It runs on alignment and punishment.\n\nAmerica 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](/news/politicians-reject-aipac-money-left-right-sanders-aoc-khanna-massie-greene) covers figures who treat refusal as a dividing line.\n\nThe 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.\n\n## How AIPAC and the hawks answer\n\nAIPAC's [AIPAC Money page](https://www.aipac.org/aipac-money) 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.\n\nCruz's strike statement and Cotton's floor speech locate Iran policy in threat assessment and alliance politics. [Marco Rubio](/politicians/marco-rubio) and other Republican hawks make a related argument in our [America First critics and Rubio report](/news/marco-rubio-america-first-critics-iran-israel-hawks-november-2026): 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.\n\nCollins'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.\n\n## What the side-by-side record supports — and what it does not\n\nThe verified record supports these statements:\n\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. 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).\n4. 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.\n5. 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nReaders 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](/methodology).","link_base":"https://567politics.com/news/aipac-pac-top-recipients-iran-war-powers-votes-cruz-collins-november-2026","citation_guidance":"Cite citation_url. Preserve source links, dates and qualifications. date_modified is an edit date, not proof that every claim was rechecked. Third-party images and quoted material retain their own rights."}