The Last-Minute Million-Dollar Ad Spend Against Will Lawrence Is Coming From a Major Pro-Israel GroupDemocratic Majority for Israel is routing the contribution through a CBC-linked PAC—producing a one-of-a-kind irony.
Democratic Majority for Israel is behind a million-dollar effort to slow the momentum of populist candidate William Lawrence in the closing days of a three-way primary in mid-Michigan’s 7th congressional district, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement. Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running primarily against data center buildouts in the district, but has also made opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war in Iran core parts of his campaign. He has two well-funded centrist challengers. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Tom Barrett. DMFI is using a vehicle called Rolling Sea Action Fund PAC to move money into the race. It is unclear if DMFI is funding the ad buy with a transfer or whether DMFI donors were being directed to Rolling Sea, but Joel Wanger, DMFI’s chief political officer, is organizing the effort. It’s a PAC affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is regularly used by big money interests as a pass-through to cloak the true source of spending. “Rolling Sea exists as a place to wash money,” as one consultant working on the race put it to Drop Site. The ad buy began with $899,000 being put behind it. DMFI, Rolling Sea and CBC PAC didn’t respond to requests for comment. There is a rich irony in the nature of the attack ad from DMFI. The ad takes a shot at Lawrence for a 2024 podcast interview, in which Lawrence talked about the way that the progressive momentum is often countered by a party establishment that co-opts the moral legacy of the Civil Rights movement and repurposes it as a weapon in its own defense. A pro-Israel PAC shrouding its activity in the veil of the Congressional Black Caucus would be exactly the kind of co-optation that Lawrence was warning against. It is much easier in a Democratic primary to take on a pro-Israel PAC directly than it is to take on the CBC, which was the precise point Lawrence is being attacked for making. On the podcast Black Internationalism, Lawrence was being interviewed by host Khury Petersen-Smith, who brought up President Joe Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse College. “The fact that Biden gave his commencement address at Morehouse College was pretty painful to watch, as a Black person, as a Black leftist, the Morehouse administration, in such a crass way, to lend its platform to Biden,” Peterson-Smith told Lawrence. “It was just so cynical, to say, We know that the majority of Americans want a ceasefire, we know that young people in particular are absolutely appalled by U.S. support for Israel, but this place that is kind of the crown jewel of historically Black colleges, the fact that Biden can give this commencement address is a gesture toward the idea that this is a progressive administration and so that is something for us to grapple with.” Petersen-Smith argued that Morehouse and Biden knew exactly what they were doing. “We recognize the political significance of the moral authority and credibility of the Black freedom struggle. It’s not just that we recognize that, but power recognizes that. Biden recognizes that, the White House recognizes that, and therefore that’s a contested space that we need to show up to,” he said. Lawrence agreed, but noted that as a white person he wasn’t the best to carry such a message, an insight borne out by the subsequent attacks on the comments that came next. “It’s not something I can talk too much about, because I’m white and it’s not my struggle,” he said. “That being said, the extent to which the older generation of Black political leadership are such a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power through their role as this kind of traditionalist, establishment-ist pillar of the Democratic Party, it’s a big problem. It’s a big problem for left politics in this country. And it gets us every single time. It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions, really. It’s very effective politically.” They later discussed Jesse Jackson’s RAINBOW coalition as a model for “a Black-led, multiracial political agenda for all poor people and for Palestinians too.” DMFI’s attack ads, meanwhile, zero in on Lawrence’s use of the phrase “the white left,” but not in defense of Israel, or in defense of U.S. support for Israel, Instead, DMFI uses the Rolling Sea PAC to do what Petersen-Smith had identified as an effective tactic, to exploit “the moral authority and credibility of the Black freedom struggle” in service of a competing agenda. It stands to reason that CBC leadership would be bothered by the Lawrence remark, but neither the CBC nor Rolling Sea has the sort of cash on hand to drop nearly a million dollars in a single race between three white candidates in a district with a Black population of roughly 6%. Rolling Sea had just $103,000 cash on hand at the end of June. The Crush MAGA PAC has already spent nearly $1 million against Lawrence; an affiliate of Crush MAGA, called Save Democracy, took $100,000 transfer from AIPAC’s Super PAC, United Democracy Project, in May. Lawrence has gotten $400,000 in outside support from National Nurses United and is now getting the backing of an anti-AIPAC PAC. The super PAC Vote Vets has gotten heavily behind Matthew Maasdam, running heavily on his service as a Navy SEAL. A third candidate, Bridget Brink, is splitting the establishment vote. Consultants involved in the race say that recent internal polling shows Lawrence with a significant lead ahead of the August 4 primary. Internal polls also show Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed ahead in the mid-Michigan region. American Priorities, the anti-AIPAC PAC, started spending this week in a joint effort in the area to boost both El-Sayed and Lawrence together, replicating a strategy rolled out in New York City, in which the same ad would elevate both Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, since both were running in separate districts in the same media market. The intervention comes as the Haley Stevens campaign grapples with the revelation that its most prominent consultant, Caitlin Legacki, was also working secretly as a Palantir consultant. Palantir supplies substantial intelligence and technological support for Israel, and is also integrated to the operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency better known as ICE. After Drop Site asked the Stevens campaign for comment on Legacki’s role, her role was terminated. “Haley was unaware of Ms. Legacki’s work for Palantir. Her contract with the campaign has been terminated. She is no longer consulting for the campaign,” a Stevens spokesperson told Drop Site. Stevens is relying primarily on AIPAC spending to boost her campaign; the group has spent more than $30 million so far backing her. The spokesperson went on: “Haley believes ICE is out of control, putting Michiganders in danger, and needs an immediate overhaul. That’s why she’s voted against giving them another cent without serious reforms, including prosecuting any ICE agents who commit crimes and abuse their power, forcing ICE agents to wear proper ID and prohibiting them from wearing masks to conceal their identities, and taking away their $75 billion slush fund.” Legacki complained that Drop Site is “more interested in my sources of income than Abdul El-Sayed’s, the actual candidate in this race who hasn’t filed his personal financial disclosure.” El-Sayed spokesperson Roxie Richner said that the problem runs deeper than a single consultant. “Congresswoman Stevens said she’ll stand up to ICE, all while she took talking points and advice from a compromised corporate apologist now revealed to be a key advisor in Trump’s deportation machine,” Richner told the Michigan Advance. “Perhaps it’s why Stevens voted to thank and fund ICE. Abdul has been clear and consistent on his stance since 2018: Abolish ICE.” On Friday, in a major boost to Stevens, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced she would be getting off the sidelines and backing Stevens, saying the congresswoman “will always put Michigan first.”
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