| Democratic Majority for Israel | |
| Status: | 501(c)(4) organization |
| Leader Title: | President, Chief Executive Officer |
| Leader Name: | Mark Mellman |
| Leader Title2: | Co-chairs |
| Leader Name2: | Ann Lewis Todd Richman |
| Size: | 250px |
Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) is an American advocacy group that supports pro-Israel policies within the United States Democratic Party.
DMFI was founded in January 2019 in reaction to polling that showed that Democrats and younger voters were less supportive of Israel than previous generations. Its president and CEO is Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who was one of its founders, along with other Democratic Party strategists, including now-Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and former White House Communications Director Ann Lewis. DMFI's separate sister organization is the political action committee DMFI PAC, founded in July 2019.
DMFI PAC backs candidates that support Democratic policies and defend Israel inside the Democratic Party. The PAC opposed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa, endorsed Joe Biden early in the 2020 Democratic primaries and again in 2024. After President Biden withdrew, DMFI announced its endorsement of Kamala Harris in July 2024. It has endorsed Democratic candidates in both primary and general elections across the country who align with DMFI's political stances.
DMFI was founded on January 29, 2019. The founding came in reaction to polling showing that Democrats and younger voters were less supportive of Israel than previous generations.[1] Mellman and other Democratic Party strategists started the organization.[2] In July 2019 the group formed a political action committee, DMFI PAC, which supports pro-Israel Democratic candidates.[3]
According to DMFI, 28 of its 29 candidates won their primaries between 2020 and 2021.[4]
In the months before the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, DMFI sent organizing staffers to identify pro-Israel Democrats, send volunteers to Democratic candidates' campaign events, and signal support for Israel.[5]
DMFI PAC endorsed Joe Biden for president in March 2020 and ran online ads supporting him.[6] [7] DMFI PAC endorsed more than 100 Democrats for House and Senate in the 2020 election cycle and ran attack ads opposing Bernie Sanders's candidacy during the 2020 primaries.[8] In total, the PAC spent over $1.4 million on advertising attacking Sanders.[9] The anti-Sanders advertising concentrated on arguing that Sanders would lose to Trump in the general election, including arguments about his "socialism" label and Sanders's recent heart attack.[10] The Sanders campaign said that the ads led to a surge in donations from supporters.[11] Journalist Jonathan S. Tobin wrote that DMFI "played a not insignificant role in helping to undermine Sanders at a point in the campaign when he was the frontrunner and Biden seemed dead in the water".[12] Political reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes credited DMFI PAC's primary ads with helping Biden secure the nomination.[13] After his election, Biden wrote to DMFI, "I am grateful for and humbled by your statement of support for this campaign."[14] Future United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken read the letter aloud during a virtual meeting.
In the 2020 New York House election in district 15, DMFI PAC supported incumbent Eliot Engel joining Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, and the Congressional Black Caucus's political action committee. DMFI PAC ran ads against his primary opponent, Jamaal Bowman, who won the election.[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
DMFI PAC made an endorsement in the 2021 Ohio 11th congressional district special election, in which the front-running candidates were progressive former State Senator Nina Turner and more moderate Democratic county councilwoman Shontel Brown.[21] [22] The PAC endorsed Brown, citing her likely support for Israel, Turner's interest in placing conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, and Turner's lack of a statement on BDS. The endorsement came alongside other support from mainstream Democrats, including endorsements from elected officials like Representatives Jim Clyburn and Joyce Beatty.[23] [24] [25] By July 2021, DMFI had spent over $660,000 in the race.[26] Much of the advertising suggested that Turner was too divisive.[27] In late July, DMFI released a poll of 400 likely Democratic voters that placed Brown five points behind Turner.[28] [29] Brown defeated Turner.[30] By the end of the race, DMFI PAC had spent over $1 million on television ads and over $2 million total.[31] Journalist Daniel Marans of HuffPost said that "there's no question that DMFI played a pivotal role" in the election, which was held to replace Representative Marcia Fudge, now the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.[32] Jewish Insiders Matthew Kassel called Brown's win a "major victory for DMFI."[33]
In the month before the 2020-2021 U.S. Senate special election runoff in Georgia, DMFI PAC endorsed Raphael Warnock against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler.[34] Warnock thanked DMFI PAC on Twitter for its endorsement, saying he would "stand for Israel's security" and "work to strengthen the alliance between our nations".[35] The endorsement followed DMFI PAC's earlier endorsement of Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff against Republican Senator David Perdue. Warnock and Ossoff defeated their Republican opponents in the January 5 runoffs.[36]
In May, DMFI PAC endorsee Representative Shontel Brown defeated former State Senator Nina Turner in Ohio's 11th Congressional District in a rematch of the previous year's special election, winning 66.3% of the vote to Turner's 33.7%.[37] [38] DMFI said it had spent more than $1 million to support Brown through independent expenditures this cycle.[39] [40] DMFI PAC was also the largest outside spender supporting Representative Sean Casten against Representative Marie Newman in Illinois's 6th congressional district.[41] By July, it had spent over $426,000 supporting Glenn Ivey against former Representative Donna Edwards for a Maryland House seat.[42] Ivey won.[43] DMFI President Mark Mellman said that 85% of the candidates his organization supported in the 2022 cycle won.[44]
In the 2022 U.S. Senate elections, the organization endorsed successfully reelected incumbents Catherine Cortez Masto and Raphael Warnock, and in an open race, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.[45] DMFI PAC undertook several independent expenditure programs in support of Democrats against Trump-endorsed opponents. In Georgia, it ran print and digital ads in support of Warnock's campaign against Herschel Walker.[46] In Pennsylvania, DMFI PAC ran a program targeting Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in support of Fetterman.[47] DMFI PAC also ran an ad campaign targeting Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, the Republican candidate in Ohio's 13th congressional district, to support State Representative Emilia Skyes's successful general election campaign.[48]
In February 2023, DMFI PAC supported Jennifer McClellan in her successful campaign to become the first Black congresswoman in Virginia history after the death of Representative Donald McEachin triggered a special election.[49] [50] DMFI endorsed President Biden in the 2024 presidential election shortly after he announced his candidacy.[51]
DMFI PAC announced endorsements for 81 House incumbents in December 2023, including Representatives Lizzie Fletcher, Bill Foster, and Jimmy Gomez, all of whom are facing primary challenges from Israel critics according to DMFI PAC.[52] The PAC also endorsed Representative Adam Schiff in his successful Democratic primary campaign in the Democratic primary for the 2024 United States Senate elections in California and former Representative Tom Suozzi in the special election winning bid to replace Representative George Santos in New York's 3rd congressional district after Santos' expulsion from Congress.[53] [54] Representative Pete Aguilar, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, released a statement praising DMFI PAC’s work in electing “more Democratic leaders that are committed to strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance.”[55]
In May 2024, DMFI PAC announced endorsements for several more candidates.[56] The PAC declared its support for incumbent Democratic Senators Bob Casey, Jacky Rosen, and Jon Tester, all of whom are facing competitive general election races.[57] Additionally, DMFI PAC is on opposing sides as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in three highly contested U.S. House races where DMFI PAC has endorsed the Democratic candidate and AIPAC has endorsed the Republican incumbent, in Pennsylvania's 10th district, and California's 22nd and 40th districts.
DMFI PAC endorsed St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell and Westchester County Executive George Latimer, primary challengers to two members of "The Squad," Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.[58] Latimer defeated Bowman by 17% of the vote, supported by advertisements run in part by DMFI PAC.[59] A June poll commissioned by DMFI PAC showed Bush and Bell in a statistical dead heat, and DMFI's previous poll in the Latimer–Bowman primary ended up having the victory margin exactly correct.[60] [61] [62] DMFI PAC launched broadcast and cable TV ads to support Bell in his primary against Cori Bush, and to support Yassamin Ansari, a candidate in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district.[63]
In response to former President Trump’s pick of Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, DMFI President Mark Mellman said that Vance “is a far-right extremist” and pointed to Vance’s denial of the 2020 election results, support of a national abortion ban, and his vote against aid to Israel during the Israel-Hamas War.[64] Mellman also emphasized Vance’s promotion of the antisemitic “Great Replacement” theory.
DMFI PAC endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on July 22, after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the campaign.[65] DMFI President Mark Mellman said that Harris "helped lead the most pro-Israel administration in American history" in a statement announcing DMFI's support. The statement also noted that Harris said "support for Israel is central" to who she is when she ran for President in 2020.
DMFI says it pushes for pro-Israel support among Democratic Party leadership, for autonomous Israeli defensive capacity, for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for American global leadership, for progressive values, and for education of Democratic leadership. It says it opposes "efforts to isolate, stigmatize or delegitimize Israel".[66] DMFI has been described as moderate and left-leaning.[67] [68] [69] [70] DMFI supports the IHRA definition of antisemitism and, before he won the presidency, called on Biden to adopt it, which he did.[71] [72] When the Biden White House released its National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May 2023, DMFI's President Mark Mellman strongly supported the plan in a statement and highlighted its inclusion of the IHRA definition.[73] [74] DMFI also backed the Nita Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Fund, which is intended to promote Israeli–Palestinian dialogue and support the Palestinian economy.[75] [76] DMFI supported the Iron Dome Supplemental Appropriations Act, which would provide Israel with $1 billion to restock its missile defense system that was depleted during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. It shared social media posts highlighting Democrats' support for the bill and criticized the delay of the bill by Senator Rand Paul.[77] [78]
DMFI congratulated the incoming Lapid–Bennett government in 2021 alongside many Jewish and pro-Israel groups. It called the new coalition the "most inclusive government ever" politically, religiously, and ethnically.[79] In his first call after assuming office, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke to DMFI, during which he emphasized reinvigorating Israel's ties with the Democratic Party.[80] After Lapid became prime minister of Israel, Haaretz noted that DMFI's president and CEO Mark Mellman was Lapid's most "significant relationship in America".[81] DMFI also joined a broad range of pro-Israel and Jewish groups in lauding Biden's nomination of Deborah Lipstadt to the post in July 2021[82] and urged Republican senators to stop blocking her nomination.[83]
Vice President Kamala Harris did not push back in September 2021 after a George Mason University student called Israel's actions toward Palestinians "an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people."[84] After the exchange, Harris reached out to DMFI, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Anti-Defamation League. Harris's senior staff told Mellman that she "strongly disagrees with the George Mason student's characterization of Israel." Mellman expressed appreciation for Harris's outreach and the Biden administration's pro-Israel policies after this meeting.[85] [86] DMFI also argued in a memo to allied members of Congress that support of pro-Israel policies is not politically damaging.[87]
DMFI called former president Trump's critical comments at the end of the 2022 election about the American Jewish community "insulting and ill-informed".[88] DMFI was one of numerous organizations that called on UC Berkeley to rescind a provision that banned any speakers who support Israel or Zionism.[89] It also praised Hakeem Jeffries's selection as House Minority Leader.[90] The Times of Israel called Jeffries "one of the most pro-Israel Democrats in the House". In September 2023, DMFI praised the nomination of former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel.[91]
Following the launch of coordinated attacks on border areas of Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, where Palestinian militants killed over 1,200 Israeli civilians, including women and children, and abducted around 200 civilians and soldiers to the Gaza Strip, DMFI's President Mark Mellman noted that "the savagery of Hamas has moved the center of gravity in a pro-Israel direction" in American politics and felt that the movement of American liberals towards supporting Israel after the attack represented "a fundamental shift."[92] [93] Mellman also praised Joe Biden's supportive stance towards Israel, saying that Biden demonstrated "unparalleled diplomatic competence."[94]
Top donors to DMFI PAC by January 2020 included energy executive and philanthropist Stacy Schusterman, the largest single donor ($995,000), and Gary Lauder, who had donated half a million.[95] [96] Donations in the third and fourth quarters of 2019 totaled nearly $2.3 million. According to FEC filings, the organization Americans for Tomorrow's Future gave DMFI PAC $100,000 in the early 2020 primary season, followed by another $400,000 on June 5 and June 10.[97]
Mellman and other Democratic Party strategists started DMFI. Other prominent board members include Co-Chair Ann Lewis, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Henry Cisneros, LGBTQ rights activist Meghan Stabler, and co-founder of JewBelong Archie Gottesman. Jennifer Granholm, currently the Secretary of Energy, is also a former board member.[98] [99] [100]