A nonprofit controlled by House Democratic leaders gave $2.5 million last year to a group that was funded by AIPAC as it unleashed spending in Democratic primaries, according to a recently released tax return.
The 2024 donation from House Majority Forward (HMF) to the nonprofit 314 Action was the first time it made a donation to the advocacy group, according to a review of tax filings. HMF, led by former Nancy Pelosi aide Mike Smith, operates as the “dark money” affiliate of the House Democrats’ super PAC arm, the House Majority PAC, sending it tens of millions of dollars in anonymous funding last cycle.
314 Action, founded in 2016, says it works to elect science- and STEM-educated Democrats to office. Last year, its spending on ads and direct mail spiked in a pair of Democratic primaries in Oregon, around a precisely-timed $1 million donation it received from United Democracy Project (UDP), the super PAC of the pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC.
At the time, 314 Action pushed back against a May 3, 2024 report in The Intercept that it was receiving AIPAC funding to purchase ads backing a pair of state representatives deemed to be more pro-Israel, Maxine Dexter in the Oregon Third Congressional District and Janelle Bynum in the Fifth. In comments to Sludge, 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton called The Intercept’s report “inaccurate,” but she declined to provide any details on her claims or more information on her super PAC’s recent funders.
The day before the May 21 primary election in Oregon, 314 Action’s executive director Erik Polyak wrote on Twitter that he was waiting on The Intercept reporter Ryan Grim to issue a retraction. The tweet showed a screenshot of 314 Action’s FEC filing information for April, which did not show an AIPAC-affiliated group. When 314 Action’s next monthly FEC filing was released on June 20, it showed the $1 million donation from UDP, received around the time the group was spending to support Dexter and Bynum in their primaries. Because the donation from UDP was received on May 1, 2024, it was not publicly disclosed ahead of the May 21 primary.
Overall, 314 Action’s total revenue more than doubled in 2024, topping $6.3 million. The group gave a total of $2 million to its super PAC in 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records, most of that amount transferred in the weeks before the general election.
