Mike Rogers reportedly requested AIPAC to stop advertising on his behalf. Then the group canceled an ad already made against Abdul El-Sayed

Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, according to a report from Axios. Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers’ Democratic rival, Abdul El-Sayed.

The move by Rogers’ team angered AIPAC officials, who had spent more than $30 million to try to defeat El-Sayed in the Democratic primary and were prepared to spend millions more to help elect Rogers, according to people familiar with the conversations. El-Sayed made AIPAC a centerpiece of his successful primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens.

El-Sayed has called Israel a “rogue state,” accused it of genocide and apartheid, and has declined to say whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. That made defeating him a priority for AIPAC, which rarely mounts major spending campaigns in general elections.

Rogers allies and AIPAC officials differ on how the group should take part in the general election

Rogers’ team warned AIPAC before the Aug. 4 Democratic primary that it believed El-Sayed would beat Stevens, though AIPAC held out hope Stevens would prevail. The two sides agreed to keep talking. After El-Sayed narrowly won, AIPAC told Rogers’ allies it wanted to continue its advertising offensive into the Nov. 3 general election. That result followed El-Sayed’s primary win despite AIPAC ads.

Rogers’ team believed AIPAC’s primary ads had backfired by giving El-Sayed a powerful foil – one he was eager to use again. “AIPAC, if you’re listening, come back and burn it again,” El-Sayed said before his primary victory.

Rogers’ allies urged AIPAC to get involved without putting the group’s name front and center, people familiar with the talks told Axios. One option was directing AIPAC donors to a pro-Rogers super PAC instead of the group running its own ads, or a joint fundraising group the Rogers campaign has established with the national GOP. Rogers’ team also proposed hiring AIPAC’s political strategists to help guide its effort.

AIPAC officials were not satisfied. The group wanted a visible role in defeating El-Sayed and argued that, because Rogers is strongly pro-Israel, El-Sayed would tie him to the pro-Israel lobbying group regardless. 

Direct talks between Rogers’ team and AIPAC have now gone cold, prompting a broader GOP effort to broker peace. Jewish Republican donors with ties to both sides are acting as intermediaries, people familiar with the discussions said.

Some national Republicans now worry that AIPAC, whose super PAC ended July with nearly $60 million in the bank, will sit out the general election entirely. 

Others say AIPAC has too much at stake not to jump into the Michigan race, and they expect the group to eventually reconcile with Rogers’ team. As concerns over lobbying groups’ role in US elections mount, Senator Bernie Sanders has urged Democrats to prohibit super PACs from participating in party primaries.

Rogers is running in a swing state with one of the country’s largest Arab American populations. A recent Fox News poll found 55% of Michigan voters oppose continued U.S. aid to Israel. “I welcome any and all support from the pro-Israel community and I’m proud to have their involvement,” Rogers told Axios.

AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa said: “We appreciate [former] Rep. Mike Rogers’ welcoming of pro-Israel support. Our members are highly motivated to be involved in this race and we will be looking at every option to make the case that El-Sayed’s policies are bad for Michigan and bad for America.”