{"schema_version":1,"citation_url":"https://567politics.com/news/ted-cruz-aipac-norpac-rjc-pac-money-fec-totals-november-2026","title":"Cruz took $726,147 via AIPAC PAC. None of it was Israeli government money.","description":"FEC Schedule B shows AIPAC PAC, NORPAC and RJC-PAC totals to Cruz's committees. Foreign governments cannot legally donate. OpenSecrets pages were blocked.","author":"567 Politics staff","publisher":"567politics","date_published":"2026-11-09T20:46:15.560236Z","date_modified":"2026-11-09T20:46:32.032974Z","body_markdown":"How much money has Ted Cruz taken from Israel, AIPAC and other Jewish groups? The short verified answer is narrower than the question: U.S. law bars the Israeli government from funding federal candidates, and the FEC exports opened for this story show no such gifts. What the filings do show are large transmissions from U.S. pro-Israel political committees—above all AIPAC PAC—into Cruz's Senate committee, plus smaller pipelines from NORPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition PAC.\n\nSenator [Ted Cruz](/politicians/ted-cruz) of Texas is a long-running hawk on Iran and a vocal defender of the U.S.–Israel alliance. Critics on the progressive left and the anti-interventionist right treat his donor list as evidence that pro-Israel money explains his Middle East votes. Cruz's own statements locate those votes in national security and alliance politics. This article inventories the Federal Election Commission Schedule B totals from named pro-Israel PACs to Cruz's committees, separates those totals from OpenSecrets' wider industry coding, and puts the critics' argument next to Cruz's words. It does not treat donors' religion or ethnicity as a funding category. Pro-Israel advocacy is the relevant label in the filings.\n\nCompanion reporting today ranks AIPAC PAC's largest congressional recipients and sets those totals beside Iran war-powers votes: [AIPAC PAC's top recipients include war critics](/news/aipac-pac-top-recipients-iran-war-powers-votes-cruz-collins-november-2026). A Cotton case study is at [Cotton's AIPAC PAC and Iran record](/news/tom-cotton-aipac-donations-iran-war-record-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). For Republican fights over Israel and America First, see the [Rubio critics story](/news/marco-rubio-america-first-critics-iran-israel-hawks-november-2026).\n\n## What the law and the labels allow\n\nForeign nationals and foreign governments, including Israel, are barred from contributing to U.S. federal candidates. AIPAC PAC (C00797670), NORPAC (C00247403), the Republican Jewish Coalition PAC (C00345132) and Pro-Israel America PAC (C00699470) are U.S. political committees. Their disclosed donors are reported as Americans. AIPAC's own [AIPAC Money page](https://www.aipac.org/aipac-money) states that AIPAC \"is not directed or funded by the Israeli government or any foreign source.\" Calling those PAC totals \"money from Israel\" or \"Jewish group money\" collapses legal categories the FEC keeps separate. This story uses the committees' names and FEC IDs.\n\nThree further distinctions matter. **Earmarked conduit contributions** are individual gifts a PAC solicits and forwards; they dominate AIPAC PAC's large Schedule B lines. **PAC contributions** are the committee's own limited gifts. **Independent expenditures** by a super PAC such as United Democracy Project (UDP, C00799031) are spending for or against a candidate, not contributions to the candidate. OpenSecrets' \"Pro-Israel\" industry code (Q05) is wider still. OpenSecrets pages for Cruz returned HTTP 403 from this research host on November 9, 2026, so this article does not invent Q05 cycle bars. It relies on FEC Schedule B opened the same day and flags the OpenSecrets gap.\n\n## AIPAC PAC: $726,147 in the 2024 cycle, $0 so far in 2026\n\nCruz's principal Senate committee is Ted Cruz for Senate (C00492785). OpenFEC Schedule B from AIPAC PAC to that committee sums to **$726,146.58** across **779** transactions. Disbursement dates fall in **2023 ($287,941)** and **2024 ($438,206)**. The OpenFEC `by_recipient` aggregate for cycle 2024 lists Ted Cruz for Senate at the same **$726,146.58**. Cycle 2022 and cycle 2026 aggregates returned no Cruz hit. A date-filtered export for January 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, also returned **$0**.\n\nThat timing matches the electoral calendar. Cruz was on the ballot in 2024. He is not on the 2026 ballot. AIPAC PAC itself did not exist until December 15, 2021, so earlier Cruz cycles cannot show AIPAC PAC Schedule B even when other pro-Israel committees appear.\n\nA parallel Schedule B search from AIPAC PAC to Cruz for President (C00574624) returned **zero** transactions. UDP Schedule E searches keyed to Cruz's Senate candidate ID (S2TX00312) returned **zero** independent expenditures in the export checked for this story. UDP's large 2026 operation against [Thomas Massie](/politicians/thomas-massie) is documented separately and is not a Cruz IE total.\n\n## NORPAC and RJC-PAC: smaller, older pipelines\n\nNORPAC's Schedule B to Ted Cruz for Senate sums to **$286,278** across 24 transactions in the full export opened November 9, 2026. By disbursement year: **$2,000** in 2013, **$126,418** in 2018, **$157,760** in 2023 and **$100** in 2024. NORPAC also transmitted **$203,200** to Cruz for President across 34 Schedule B lines, concentrated in **2015 ($178,600)** and **2016 ($23,600)**, with **$1,000** in 2018. Combined NORPAC Schedule B to the Senate and presidential committees in those exports is **$489,478**. Those are still U.S. PAC transmissions, not Israeli government funds.\n\nThe Republican Jewish Coalition PAC's Schedule B to Ted Cruz for Senate sums to **$262,270** across 672 transactions: about **$42,815** in 2018, **$84,285** in 2023 and **$135,170** in 2024. Pro-Israel America PAC (C00699470) showed **zero** Schedule B lines to Ted Cruz for Senate in the search used here.\n\n```chart\ntype: column\ntitle: Named pro-Israel PAC Schedule B to Ted Cruz for Senate by cycle\nprefix: $\nnote: OpenFEC Schedule B from AIPAC PAC (C00797670), NORPAC (C00247403) and RJC-PAC (C00345132) to Ted Cruz for Senate (C00492785), retrieved Nov. 9, 2026. Cycles with no transactions are omitted. Presidential-committee NORPAC dollars are excluded from this chart and reported separately in the prose. AIPAC PAC did not exist before Dec. 2021.\nsource: [FEC AIPAC PAC](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00797670/), [FEC NORPAC](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00247403/), [FEC RJC-PAC](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00345132/), [Ted Cruz for Senate](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00492785/)\n---\nCycle | AIPAC PAC | NORPAC | RJC-PAC\n2013-2014 | - | 2000 | -\n2017-2018 | - | 126418 | 42815\n2023-2024 | 726147 | 157860 | 219455\n```\n\n| Source (Schedule B) | To Ted Cruz for Senate | To Cruz for President | Notes |\n| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |\n| AIPAC PAC (C00797670) | $726,147 | $0 | Almost all 2023–2024; $0 in 2025–2026 export |\n| NORPAC (C00247403) | $286,278 | $203,200 | Senate peaks 2018 and 2023; presidential peak 2015–2016 |\n| RJC-PAC (C00345132) | $262,270 | $0 found | Senate lines in 2018, 2023, 2024 |\n| Pro-Israel America PAC | $0 found | not searched as primary | Zero Senate Schedule B rows in export |\n| UDP independent expenditures | $0 found vs S2TX00312 | — | Separate from contributions |\n\nTotals retrieved November 9, 2026. Later amendments can change them. Snapshot \"PAC contribution\" lines on Form 3 can undercount earmarked conduit flow; Schedule B from the transmitting PAC is the transmission total used here.\n\n## What OpenSecrets could add — and what we could not open\n\nOpenSecrets groups employees and PACs under a Pro-Israel industry code. That coding can include committees beyond AIPAC PAC, NORPAC and RJC-PAC and can include itemized individuals OpenSecrets labels as pro-Israel. It is useful for long cycle comparisons. It is not identical to any single PAC's Schedule B. Repeated requests to OpenSecrets member-industry pages for Cruz (cid N00033085) returned **403 Forbidden** from this research host on November 9, 2026. Because the editorial standard forbids inventing figures, this story does not publish OpenSecrets cycle bars for Cruz. Readers should treat any third-party \"pro-Israel career total\" that is not tied to a opened OpenSecrets table or FEC export as unverified here.\n\n## Cruz's stated reasons for his Iran and Israel line\n\nCruz's February 28, 2026 [Senate 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 PACs. 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.\"\n\nOn March 18, 2026, Cruz voted **Nay** on Senate roll call [vote 58](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=119&session=2&vote=00058), the failed motion to discharge a war-powers measure, alongside [Tom Cotton](/politicians/tom-cotton) and [John Cornyn](/politicians/john-cornyn). That vote record is primary. Motive language that says he advocates for wars \"on Israel's behalf\" is the critics' framing, not a finding from the roll call itself.\n\n## How critics connect the money to the policy\n\nCritics argue that concentrated pro-Israel PAC money, especially AIPAC PAC's 2024 conduit surge, rewards senators who back hard lines on Iran and unconditional aid and raises the cost of dissent. They point to UDP's independent expenditures against Massie as the punishment side of the same network, covered in the [UDP primaries story](/news/aipac-udp-republican-primaries-massie-fec-spending-november-2026). Progressive and America First critics disagree on almost everything else. They agree that Cruz's AIPAC PAC total belongs in any debate about his war votes. 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\nThat argument is about incentives. It is not proof of a disclosed bargain. Funding alone does not establish corruption or foreign control under U.S. campaign-finance law. The Israeli government does not appear as a contributor in these PAC Schedule B exports.\n\n## How AIPAC and Cruz's allies answer\n\nAIPAC says \"AIPAC money\" is a slogan that singles out Americans who favor a strong U.S.–Israel relationship and that its PAC giving is disclosed like other issue constituencies. Cruz's strike statement supplies the policy answer without discussing donors: Iran as a decades-long threat to Americans, nuclear risk and an ally fighting shared enemies. Allies note that Cruz's hawkish Iran record predates AIPAC PAC's 2021 registration even if his largest AIPAC PAC total arrives in 2023–2024. Sequence undercuts any claim that the PAC invented his views. It does not by itself disprove an incentive story about sustaining those views.\n\n## What the record supports — and what it does not\n\nThe verified record supports these statements:\n\n1. AIPAC PAC transmitted about **$726,147** to Ted Cruz for Senate in the 2024 cycle, with **$0** found for 2025–2026 dates in the exports checked November 9, 2026.\n2. NORPAC transmitted about **$286,278** to the Senate committee across earlier and overlapping years and about **$203,200** to Cruz for President in 2015–2018.\n3. RJC-PAC transmitted about **$262,270** to the Senate committee, mostly in 2023–2024.\n4. Pro-Israel America PAC and UDP showed **$0** in the Senate Schedule B / Schedule E searches used here for Cruz.\n5. No FEC export opened for this story shows contributions from the Israeli government to Cruz.\n6. Cruz's own Iran statement and his Nay on Senate vote 58 are primary evidence of his public line; critics' claims about motive remain attributed claims.\n\nThe record does not support saying Cruz received \"money from Israel\" as a foreign government. It does not support treating \"Jewish groups\" as an FEC category. It does not prove that AIPAC PAC donations caused his Iran votes. Correlation between a 2024 conduit surge and a 2026 war vote is a timeline fact for readers to weigh. Causation is the disputed step.\n\nFor the wider congressional ranking that places Cruz's AIPAC PAC total next to Collins, Bell, Moskowitz, Cotton and war-powers yes votes, continue with today's [recipients and war-powers story](/news/aipac-pac-top-recipients-iran-war-powers-votes-cruz-collins-november-2026). For how 567politics treats funding research, see our [methodology](/methodology).","link_base":"https://567politics.com/news/ted-cruz-aipac-norpac-rjc-pac-money-fec-totals-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."}